INAUGURAL  EXERCISES 


AT  THE 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY 


ON  THE  OCCASION  OF  THE  INSTALLATION  OF 


Col.  HOMER  B.  SPRAGUE, 


AS  PRINCIPAL. 


UttARY  Of 

1  hie 

C0J  3C  1329 


university 


0F  ILLINOIS 


BROOKLYN,  OCTOBER  10,  1870. 


|Hew  yoi^K: 

L  H.  BIGLOW  &  CO.,  PRINTERS  AND  STATIONERS,  No.  13  WILLIAM  STREET, 

1870. 


. 

.v.v:V ,;v  ,  \vriv--; 


,t  ■■  ■ 

' 

:  ■  .  .  .  '■  '  J~A 


■ 


" 


'oartl  off  §frmtees. 


Rev.  WM.  IVES  BUDINGTON,  D.  D. 

©teagum, 

HAROLD  DOLLNER,  Esq. 

j&wwtats, 

ALFRED  C.  BARNES,  Esa 


Rev.  WM.  IYES  BUDINGTON,  D.  D. 
Rev.  JOSEPH  T.  DURYEA,  D.  D. 
Rev.  CHARLES  W.  HOMER, 

Rev.  DAVID  MOORE,  D.  D. 
CHARLES  PRATT,  Esq. 

JOHN  FRENCH,  Esq. 

S.  D.  C.  VAN  BOKKELEN,  Esq. 
Gen.  HENRY  W.  SLOCUM, 

Hon.  GEORGE  G.  REYNOLDS, 
BUCKLEY  T.  BENTON,  Esq. 
JOSEPH  C.  HUTCHISON,  M.  D. 
ENOS  N.  TAFT,  Esq. 


JOHN  DAVOL,  Esq. 

CHARLES  E.  HILL,  Esq. 
CHARLES  E.  EVANS,  Esq. 
EDWIN  BEERS,  Esq. 

ALFRED  C.  BARNES,  Esq. 
HAROLD  DOLLNER,  Esq. 
HORACE  D.  WADE,  Esq. 
WILLIAM  C.  DUNTON,  Esq. 

L.  W.  SALTONSTALL,  Esq. 
EDWARD  F.  De  SEEDING,  Esq. 
Rev.  ALBERT  S.  HUNT, 
ROBERT  D.  BENEDICT,  Esq. 


ffncnltn  off  instruction 


HOMER  B.  SPRAGUE,  M.  A.,  Principal,  and  Professor  of  English  Literature  and 

Elocution. 


T.  J.  ELLINWOOD,  -  -  Professor  of  Vocal  and  Physical  Culture  and 

Phonography. 

WARREN  T.  WEBSTER,  M.  A.,  Superintendent  of  Collegiate  Department ,  and  Pro¬ 
fessor  of  Latin  and  Greek. 


CHARLES  JEWETT,  A.  M.,  -  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Natural  Science. 
HENRY  B.  WETZELL,  -  Professor  of  Book-keeping  and  Penmanship. 

ALB  IN  PUTZKER,  -  -  -  Professor  of  Modern  Languages. 

WASHINGTON  CHOATE,  A.  B.,  Superintendent  of  Academic  Department,  and 

Assistant  Professor  of  Latin  and  Greek. 


DAVID  E.  KOHLER,  - 
EDWARD  L.  RICE, 
BENJAMIN  BOWEN,  - 
LOUIS  GRUBE, 
CHARLOTTE  MORRILL, 
JANE  W.  CHANDLER,  - 
DANA  McALPINE,  - 
MARY  E.  SHAW,  - 
BERTHA  STERLING,  - 
ISABEL  CAMP, 
JEANNETTE  L.  COOMES, 
MARIA  A.  LEGGET,  - 
STELLA  HAYDEN,  - 
CHARLOTTE  RAWSON, 
SARAH  P.  SANBORN,  - 
ANNIE  J.  HAYDEN,  - 


English  Grammar  and  Composition. 

English  Grammar  and  Composition. 

Arithmetic  and  Geometry. 

Professor  of  Drawing. 

Secretary,  and  Instructor  in  Book-keeping. 
Arithmetic. 

Orthography  and  Composition. 

Oral  Instruction  (Science). 

Elocution. 

Geography. 

Geography. 

Superintendent  of  Preparatory  Department. 
English  Studies. 

English  Studies. 

English  Studies. 

Music,  and  Piano  Accompaniment  in  Calisthenics. 


Kmotpral 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY. 


OCTOBER  lO,  1870. 


pPENING  ^DDRESS  BY  j^EY.  JD  R.  j3lJDINGTON, 


PRESIDENT  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — It  has  been  devolved  upon  me  by 
my  associates  in  the  Board  of  Trustees  to  bid  you  welcome  here 
this  evening,  and  to  introduce  the  exercises  of  the  Inauguration 
by  a  few  remarks.  I  do  this  with  the  utmost  satisfaction ;  for 
I  feel  that  I  never  have  had  the  opportunity  of  gathering  with 
my  fellow  citizens  on  any  occasion  which  seemed  to  me  more 
fraught  with  interest  to  us,  to  our  children  and  to  the  generations 
that  are  to  occupy  this  favored  spot. 

We  are  come  together  to  inaugurate  an  institution  by  the  first 
public  and  solemn  putting  into  his  place  of  the  Principal  or  Head 
Master  of  the  Academy.  Men  die,  but  institutions  live  on. 
Workmen  cease,  but  the  work  goes  on.  No  man  ever  lives 
beyond  his  petty  hour  who  does  not  either  originate,  or  enlarge 
or  perpetuate  some  institution.  The  fathers  of  our  country  are 
living  to-day  in  the  Constitution  that  blesses  the  land ;  in  our 
churches,  in  our  colleges  and  schools.  And  if  we  are  to  live  after 
we  have  been  laid  to  rest,  it  will  be  because  our  wisdom  and  our 
benefactions  have  entered,  in  some  large  and  substantial  manner, 
into  the  institutions  which  are  to  bless  our  countrymen  when  we 
are  gone.  Government  is  an  institution.  Governors  change,  but 


6 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY. 


the  government  goes  on.  Churches  are  institutions.  Ministers 
fail,  and  their  lips  grow  dumb,  but  the  ministry  continues  on  in 
the  administration  of  the  light  and  charities  of  the  gospel.  And 
so  the  schools  of  our  land — our  academies  and  our  colleges — are 
institutions. 

I  do  not  mean  to  ignore  the  work  done  by  private  teachers.  I 
believe  there  is  no  class  of  laborers  among  us  deserving  of  more 
honorable  mention  than  those  noble  men  and  women  who  dedicate 
their  lives  to  the  work  of  teaching.  There  is  in  the  great  work 
of  education  a  department  for  private  schools  and  for  private 
teachers;  and  I  believe  there  always  will  be.  We  have  nothing, 
then,  but  good  words  and  blessings  for  those  who  are  engaged  in 
private  schools.  But  what  we  insist  upon  to-night  is,  that  there 
is  something  in  the  higher  education  of  our  youth  to  which  indi¬ 
vidual  enterprise  is  altogether  inadequate.  The  largest  wisdom 
and  the  greatest  devotion  of  any  one  teacher  are  utterly  ineffectual 
in  accomplishing  the  work  which  is  to  be  done  in  our  colleges  and 
academies. 

Teaching  has  become  a  profession,  and,  like  all  professions,  in 
common  with  all  the  trades  and  arts  of  modern  civilization,  it  has 
developed  itself  into  a  great  number  of  specialties. 

One  man  has  the  ability  to  teach  geography ;  he  has  such  clear 
conceptions,  such  an  enthusiasm,  that  he  fills  the  minds  of  the 
young  to  whom  he  ministers  with  ardor  for  his  pursuit,  the  whole 
world  puts  on  beauty  under  his  instruction,  and  it  becomes  a 
moving  panorama  of  pictures  before  the  eyes  of  a  class.  Another 
has  a  gift  for  the  teaching  of  grammar,  and  that  science,  which, 
in  some  men’s  handling,  is  abstract  and  repulsive,  becomes  by  a 
wondrouus  transfiguration  a  delight  even.  So  there  are  others 
who  have  the  faculty  to  teach  mathematics.  They  make  good 
arithmeticians,  algebraists,  geometricians,  surveyors,  engineers. 
Others  have  a  specialty  in  the  teaching  of  languages ;  God  fitted 
them  by  nature  for  their  work,  and  when  they  are  before  a  class 
of  bright  minds  they  are  enabled  to  infuse  life  into,  Greek  and 
Latin,  usually  denominated  “  dead  languages,”  so  as  to  make  these 
vanished  nations  live  their  histories  over  again. 

Now,  in  order  to  secure  to  our  children  teachers  who  are  com¬ 
petent  thus  not  only  to  teach,  but  so  to  teach  that  the  scholars 
shall  learn,  there  must  be  incurred  an  expense  which  is  beyond 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


7 

any  private  means.  When  an  educator  attempts  to  establish  an 
institution  like  this,  which  is  designed  to  train  up  youth  until 
they  are  prepared  for  commercial  or  scientific  pursuits,  or  are 
graduated  into  our  colleges  and  universities,  and  when  he  attempts 
to  do  it  thoroughly  and  so  as  to  secure  the  best  good  of  those  who 
are  under  his  care,  he  will  not  have  had  long  experience  before  he 
is  confronted  either  with  bankruptcy  on  the  one  hand  or  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  superficial  teaching  on  the  other.  He  cannot  secure  the 
ablest  teachers,  in  sufficient  numbers,  to  devote  their  whole  time 
to  this  work  by  the  revenues  derived  from  his  scholars  unless  he 
taxes  them  to  a  degree  which  they  cannot  endure — not  even  the 
children  of  our  rich  men.  Our  colleges  and  our  universities 
would  be  closed,  not  only  to  the  children  of  the  middle  classes  and 
the  poor,  but  to  the  children  of  men  whom  we  ordinarily  call  rich, 
were  they  assessed  a  just  proportion  of  the  expense  of  maintaining 
those  institutions.  Take  any  moderate  estimate  of  the  rent  of  the 
land,  of  the  value  of  the  buildings,  of  the  cost  of  apparatus,  and  of 
the  means  of  keeping  them  in  repair;  then  add  to  the  sum  a 
proper  proportion  of  the  expense  of  the  principal  and  the  several 
professors  and  teachers,  and  you  have  an  amount  for  each  individ¬ 
ual  student  which  places  the  advantages  of  those  institutions 
beyond  the  reach  of  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  of  every  thous¬ 
and  in  our  most  prosperous  communities. 

The  oldest  feature  of  our  modern  civilization  is  the  establishment 
of  gratuitous  endowments  of  schools,  academies  and  colleges, 
otherwise  our  civilization  had  perished  on  the  very  place  of  its 
birth.  The  University  of  Paris  and  the  great  German  universities 
date  back  to  the  very  dawn  of  modern  European  civilization ;  and 
you  all  know  that  the  foundation  stones  of  our  civil  institutions 
were  laid  by  men  who  established  the  college  and  the  school  by 
noble  and  liberal  endowments  in  the  very  hour  of  their  deepest 
poverty,  when  they  were  building  their  own  rude  huts  and  were 
standing  to  their  arms  in  the  corn  fields  and  in  the  churches  to 
defend  themselves  from  the  incursions  of  the  savage. 

I  call  to  mind  the  time  when  Cambridge,  Mass.,  was  so  poor 
that  it  had  no  money  to  give  to  Harvard  College,  and  a  peck  of 
corn  was  assessed  upon  each  house.  By  that  assessment  this 
institution  was  preserved,  until  now,  with  its  magnificent  endow¬ 
ments  and  appurtenances,  it  is  making  itself  felt  throughout  our 


8 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY 


land,  not  only  by  its  own  direct  influence,  but  by  the  influence  of 
sister  institutions,  which  have  grown  up  like  it  and  after  its 
example. 

The  truth  is,  it  is  the  very  foundation  of  Christian  civilization, 
not  to  say  of  republican  institutions,  that  there  shall  be  no  tax 
upon  knowledge. 

It  would  be  a  curious  inquiry,  how  large  a  part  of  our  education 
was  paid  for  by  men  and  women  who  have  passed  away  generations 
before  us.  I  look  back  to  my  own  education  and  think  of  the 
paltry  sum  I  was  called  upon  to  pay  according  to  the  requisitions 
of  the  college.  I  paid  I  know  not  how  small  a  proportion  of  the 
expense  of  carrying  on  the  institution  whose  advantages  I  enjoyed 
during  the  four  years  of  my  collegiate  training. 

And  what  is  true  of  training  in  colleges  is  true  of  training  in 
our  endowed  academies. 

We  need  an  educated  people,  the  fit  preservation  of  our  institu¬ 
tions.  The  strength  of  a  people  resides  in  their  education  and 
character.  And  you  cannot  have  a  high-minded  people  without 
you  have  an  educated  people.  One  of  the  causes  why  the  Prussians 
have  been  so  successful  in  the  war  now  raging  is,  that  their  sol¬ 
diers,  rank  and  file,  are  educated  and  know  what  they  are  doing. 

To  is  said  that  when  the  Prussian  army  passed  the  boundary 
into  France,  every  private  soldier  carried  in  his  vest  pocket  a  map 
of  the  provinces  through  which  the  army  was  making  progress, 
on  which  every  hill  and  road  and  farm  house  was  marked,  and  so 
accurate  is  their  knowledge  of  the  topography  of  the  country  that 
the  French  cannot  account  for  it,  except  on  the  supposition  that 
every  household  among  them  has  been  penetrated  by  Prussian 
spies.  The  consequence  has  been  that  any  man  who  could  not 
speak  good  French  was  suspected  of  being  a  spy ;  and  our  country¬ 
men  in  Paris  were  hunted  down,  in  some  instances,  on  the  insane 
idea  that  the  Prussians  were  gaining  their  successes  through 
treachery.  No  !  Prussian  success  is  due  to  the  better  knowledge 
of  the  Prussian  soldiers,  received  in  the  schools  provided  for  them 
by  the  State.  And  our  strength  as  a  nation  will  depend  upon 
the  education  of  our  children.  A  people  that  know  what  they  are 
fighting  for  can  neither  be  defeated  nor  exterminated. 

And  here  allow  me  to  say  that  I  do  not  think  we  have  any 
reason  to  sigh  for  European  systems  of  education.  It  is  my 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


9 


deliberate  conviction — a  conviction  which  I  have  this  autumn  as 
I  had  it  not  last  spring — that  our  American  institutions  are  better 
calculated  to  give  education  to  American  boys  than  any  other 
institutions  in  the  world.  I  do  not  deny  that  there  are  times 
when  it  may  be  advisable  for  youth  to  go  abroad  to  study.  If  a 
person  wants  to  learn  a  foreign  language,  he  can  best  accomplish 
his  object  by  going  where  it  is  spoken.  But  that  education  which 
the  American  youth  needs  is  best  acquired  in  an  American  school. 
I  went  to  an  American  consul,  this  summer,  while  in  Europe,  and 
asked  him  what  he  thought  of  the  comparative  advantages  of 
European  and  American  schools  for  young  men  of  America.  I 
had  not  finished  my  question — I  had  only  gone  so  far  as  to  make 
my  meaning  apparent — when  that  gentleman,  our  Consul,  who  is 
a  German  by  birth,  though  he  prides  himself  on  his  American 
citizenship,  said,  “  I  have  no  question  on  that  subject.  German 
schools  are  very  good  to  make  unquestioning  subjects  of  German 
monarchies,  but  they  are  not  calculated  to  make  self-respecting 
American  citizens.” 

My  friends,  you  are  met  to-night  to  assist  in  inaugurating  the 
Principal  of  an  institution  designed  to  train  up  the  citizens  we 
need  in  all  the  walks  of  life..  Some  twenty  thousand  dollars  have 
been  contributed  by  those  who  deserve  to  be  called  founders  of 
the  institution.  They,  together  with  those  who  shall  hereafter 
add  their  donations,  may  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that 
they  are  laying  the  foundations  of  an  institution  which  shall  be 
second  to  none  in  this  city,  or  in  any  other  city,  if  our  efforts 
shall  be  successful. 

The  Trustees  have  just  fixed  upon  a  plan  for  the  enlaigement 
of  this  edifice.  It  is  proposed  to  build  a  wing  for  the  smaller 
children,  who  have  hitherto  been  separated  from  the  upper  school 
and  gone  to  Adelphi  St.;  and  also  a  suitable  room  for  the  accom¬ 
modation  of  the  girls  during  exercise  hours  in  bad  weather.  It 
has  been  determined,  and  I  think  wisely,  to  place  all  the  pupils  of 
the  Adelphi  Academy  under  the  immediate  inspection  and  per¬ 
sonal  influence  of  the  Principal ;  and,  while  we  are  to  do  this  at 
once,  we  propose,  in  addition,  to  call  upon  the  citizens  of  Brooklyn 
to  carry  out  the  full  development  of  the  institution  in  all  its 
departments.  We  wish  to  have  this  land  free  of  debt,  the  buildings 
also,  as  well  as  all  the  apparatus  and  libraries  that  belong  to  this 


10 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY 


Academy.  We  wish,  also,  to  have  scholarships  founded  by  the 
liberal,  so  that  children  of  the  deserving  poor,  that  come  out  from 
our  public  schools  with  honor,  shall  be  able  to  prosecute  the 
higher  branches  here.  In  one  word,  we  aim  at  nothing  less  than 
to  bestow  the  largest  and  best  benefaction  possible  upon  this  part 
of  Brooklyn — an  institution  for  the  training  of  our  sons  and 
daughters  which  shall  put  a  high  education  within  the  reach  of 
all ;  and,  in  the  consummation  of  this  design,  the  Trustees  look 
for,  and  confidently  expect,  the  intelligent  and  strong-handed  aid 
of  the  liberal  citizens  of  Brooklyn. 

The  founders  of  this  institution — those  who  have  already  donated 
largely  to  it,  and  those  who  shall  do  so  hereafter,  will  take  their 
places  among  the  founders  of  institutions  that  are  longest  to  be 
remembered.  There  are  none  in  this  land  so  honored  as  the  men 
who  have  given  their  names  to  our  institutions.  Harvard  was  a 
poor  minister  who  gave  a  large  share  of  all  he  had  to  the  institu¬ 
tion  at  Cambridge ;  and,  in  its  poverty,  it  took  the  name  of  that 
poor  man  who,  like  the  widow  of  old,  gave  what  he  had.  Yale 
College,  likewise,  commemorates  the  virtues  of  a  noble  man  who 
laid  the  foundation  of  that  institution.  So  with  Brown  University 
and  its  founder,  whose  name  it  bears.  And  there  are  numerous 
institutions  that  have  gone  up  under  our  own  observation,  founded 
by  our  fellow  citizens,  whom  we  know  and  honor. 

This  institution  is  entrusted  to  the  guardianship  of  twenty-four 
trustees,  who  were  selected  by  the  gentlemen  who  gave  the  Acad¬ 
emy  to  the  public.  They  selected  men  of  intelligence  and  known 
public  spirit,  who  came  together,  most  of  them  strangers  to  each 
other,  and  bound  together  by  no  other  conceivable  tie  than  their 
love  of  the  community  in  which  they  dwell,  and  their  desire,  by 
the  contribution  of  their  time  and  zeal,  to  lay  broad  and  deep  the 
foundations  of  an  institute  ol  learning.  And  when  you  think  that 
those  Trustees  for  the  year  past  have  been  contributing  no  incon¬ 
siderable  portion  of  their  time  to  the  interests  of  this  Academy, 
I  am  sure  you  will  recognize  their  claim  alike  upon  your  respect 
and  upon  your  confidence.  Be  assured,  my  friends,  that  if  twenty- 
four  men,  such  as  those  whose  names  constitute  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  are  unanimously  agreed  upon  any  point  of  policy,  it  is 
nothing  more  than  good  sense  to  conclude  that  there  is  some  sub¬ 
stantial  reason  for  the  action  which  they  take,  and  that  it  will 
meet  with  the  sanction  of  the  enlightened  community. 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


11 


Having  attended  most  of  the  meetings  of  the  Board,  I  am 
bound  to  say  that  these  gentlemen  have  given  time  and  patience, 
to  a.  very  large  degree,  to  this  institution,  and  that  they  have 
done  nothing  which  they  have  not  felt  constrained  to  do  by  a 
conscientious  regard  for  the  children  of  the  institution.  What 
they  have  done  in  the  past  they  will  continue  to  do  in  the  future. 
They  will  be  faithful  in  the  guardianship  of  this  institution,  re¬ 
solved  at  all  costs  to  maintain  thorough  instruction,  and  bestow 
upon  your  sons  and  daughters  honest  and  faithful  work  in  the 
solemn  business  of  educating  them  for  life.  I  believe  no  greater 
calamity  can  befall  a  youth,  and  no  greater  wrong  be  done  a 
youth,  than  to  allow  the  early  years  of  life  to  pass  by  without 
solid  instruction  in  fundamentals.  When  those  years  are  gone 
and  their  opportunities  are  lost,  they  are  lost  forever. 

I  will  conclude  these  remarks,  which  are  longer  than  I  hoped 
they  would  be,  simply  by  saying  that  a  young  lady  called  upon 
me  this  evening  to  know  whether  it  would  be  possible  for  those 
young  ladies  who  are  desirous  of  prosecuting  their  studies,  and 
who  are  unwilling  to  go  down  town,  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
advantages  of  this  institution,  studying  at  home  and  reciting  under 
the  immediate  supervision  of  the  Principal.  I  have  the  authority 
of  the  Principal  in  saying  that  such  a  proposition  would  be  most 
favorably  received,. and  we  believe  an  arrangement  of  that  kind 
can  be  made  not  less  advantageous  to  the  institution  than  to  the 
young  ladies  who  wish  to  pursue  their  stndies  in  this  way. 

And  now,  my  friends,  I  have  great  satisfaction  in  calling  for 
the  exercises  which  still  await  us  upon  the  programme  for  the 
evening.  After  the  music,  which  will  immediately  follow,  there 
will  be  the  delivering  of  the  keys  of  the  institution  by  the  Bev. 
Chas.  W.  Homer  and  the  inauguration  of  the  Principal,  Prof. 
Sprague. 


Remarks  by  pHAs.  ^f.  |4omer, 

Prof.  Sprague  :  It  has  been  made  my  duty  by  this  Board  of 
Trustees — and  a  more  welcome  duty  I  never  was  called  upon  in 
my  life  to  perform — to  place  in  your  hands,  to-night,  this  Charter 


12 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY 


and  these  keys,  as  tokens  and  emblems  of  the  trust  herein  reposed 
in  you.  You  have  come  to  us,  sir,  in  a  very  critical  period  of  our 
history ;  and  you  have  already  succeeded  in  reducing,  in  a  great 
measure,  the  chaotic  and  disorganized  state  of  things  that  existed, 
to  precision  and  harmony  and  order.  You  have  come  to  this 
young,  vigorous  and  growing  community ;  and  you  have  been  re¬ 
ceived  by  them,  and  will  be  received  still  more  largely  in  the 
future,  with  open  arms  and  warm  hearts.  You  have  come  to  us, 
sir,  with  a  brilliant  reputation  in  the  world  of  letters ;  and  what 
is  of  far  more  consequence  to  us,  you  have  come  with  a  reputation 
for  fidelity  in  every  position  of  trust  in  which  you  have  hereto¬ 
fore  been  placed  ;  and  we  may  thank  God,  sir,  that  we  have  found 
in  yourself  a  man  who  we  believe  will  not  dishonor  the  trust  we 
place  in  him.  And  now,  I  hand  you  these  emblems,  praying  that 
the  Almighty  God  whose  you  are,  and  whom  you  serve,  through 
his  blessed  Son,  whom  you  confess  every  time  you  open  the  pro¬ 
ceedings  of  this  institution  with  prayer,  by  the  aid  of  his  Holy 
Spirit,  may  direct  and  sustain  you  in  your  arduous  work,  so  that 
you  may  be  able  to  see  these  young  minds  growing  up  under 
your  eye  and  under  your  hand,  who  in  the  immediate  future  will 
become  ornaments  to  the  church,  to  society,  and  to  the  common¬ 
wealth,  and  at  last  prove  monuments  of  your  fidelity  in  the  world 
to  come. 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


13 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS 

BY 

Col.  HOMER  B.  SPRAGUE, 

PRINCIPAL  OF  ADELPHI  ACADEMY. 


To  rightly  educate  a  human  being  is  a  task  of  no  small  delicacy 
and  difficulty.  He  who  works  in  metals  or  minerals,  in  gold  or 
diamonds,  uses  comparatively  coarse  tools  on  coarse  materials  and 
for  coarse  ends.  Aristotle  tells  us  that  “a  statue  lies  hid  in  a 
block  of  marble,  and  that  the  art  of  the  sculptor  only  clears  away 
the  superfluous  matter,”  and  leaves  the  perfect  form.  Such  is 
education.  In  every  human  soul  the  true  educator  recognizes  the 
image  of  God ;  often  sadly  incrusted  with  folly  and  sin,  marred, 
distorted,  paralyzed ;  but  capable  of  being  made  symmetrical, 
beautiful  and  strong. 

The  usual  division  makes  education  threefold :  physical,  intel¬ 
lectual  and  moral. 

Physically,  no  man  has  been  faultless  since  Adam.  Perfect 
beauty,  combined  with  perfect  strength,  all  the  forces  complete 
and  in  equipoise,  no  outward  blemish  nor  hidden  taint,  no  excess  and 
no  deficiency — we  hardly  need  a  sculptor  to  tell  us  that  this  happy 
union  is  nowhere  to  be  found.  There  are  so  many  inherited  mala¬ 
dies  and  weaknesses  ;  so  many  infelicities  of  climate,  food,  clothing, 
shelter ;  so  many  transgressions  of  nature’s  far-reaching  and  in¬ 
exorable  laws,  that  the  mass  of  mankind  cut  but  a  sorry  figure. 

Now,  to  lay  no  stress  upon  the  fact,  weighty  enough  in  itself, 
that  perfect  health  is  a  fountain  of  joy,  making  simple  existence  a 
blessing,  the  intellectual  and  moral  influences  that  flow  from  the 
perfection  or  imperfection  of  this  bodily  machine  are  of  transcend¬ 
ent  importance. 


14 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY. 


You  cannot  make  a  violin  of  rotton  wood.  The  finest  fruits  of 
genius  cannot  spring  from  disease.  Clearness,  energy  and  keen¬ 
ness  of  thought  cannot  long  characterize  the  sick  man.  Who  can 
tell  how  wonderfully  all  intellectual  processes  would  have  been 
quickened  and  broadened,  what  new  heights  of  thought  would 
have  been  scaled,  what  new  realms  would  have  been  wrested  from 
the  unknown,  had  the  great  thinkers  of  the  world  enjoyed  long 
lives  and  perfect  health ;  had  Shakspeare  lived  eighty  years  in¬ 
stead  of  fifty-two ;  had  thirty  active  years  been  added  to  the 
lives  of  such  men  as  Bacon,  Descartes,  Milton,  Mozart,  Burns  ? 

One  of  the  saddest  records  in  the  biography  of  genius  is  the 
despairing  utterance  of  the  great  Beethoven,  who  became  deaf 
at  thirty.  “At  this  early  age,”  he  writes,  “I  must  withdraw 
from  the  world  and  lead  a  solitary  life.  How  cruelly  have  I 
been  cast  down  by  proofs  of  my  defective  hearing — a  sense  which 
I  ought  to  possess  in  a  higher  degree  than  others.  For  me  there 
can  be  no  recreation  in  social  intercourse,  no  joining  in  refined 
and  intellectual  conversation,  no  mutual  outpourings  of  the  heart 
with  others.  I  am  brought  to  the  verge  of  despair.  A  little 
more,  and  I  had  put  an  end  to  my  life.”  And  we  hear  the  sub¬ 
lime  lamentation  of  a  greater  than  Beethoven,  when  blindness 
had  robbed  him  of  half  his  power : — 

‘  ‘  Oh,  dark !  dark  !  dark !  amid  the  blaze  of  noon, 

Irrecoverably  dark ;  total  eclipse, 

Without  all  hope  of  day ! 

The  sun  to  me  is  dark 
And  silent  as  the  moon 
When  she  deserts  the  night!” 

Not  only  has  there  been  no  other  destroyer  of  intellect  half  so 
fatal  as  disease,  but  its  effects  have  not  been  favorable  on  the 
character.  When  the  King  has  the  gout,  all  the  people  limp. 
When  the  governor  has  the  dyspepsia,  he  signs  no  pardons.  We 
no  longer  wonder  that  John  Calvin  brooded  on  the  stern  decrees 
rather  than  dwelt  on  the  infinite  love  of  God,  when  we  read  that 
from  youth  he  was  afflicted  with  asthma,  gout,  stone,  rheumatism, 
and  a  dozen  other  diseases. 

Undoubtedly  this  regard  for  physical  culture  may  become  ex¬ 
treme.  Ten  years  ago  it  was  the  fashion  to  boast  of  a  “  muscular 
Christianity.”  A  year  ago  all  England  and  America  went  crazy 
over  a  boat  race  between  eight  unfortunate  students — four  Ameri- 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


15 


can  and  four  English.  A  million  men,  women  and  children 
thronged  the  banks  of  the  river  Thames  to  behold  the  spectacle. 
Distinguished  clergymen  and  editors  said  all  beauty  seemed  taken 
from  the  heavens  when  the  Oxford  boat  came  in  ahead  of  the 
Harvard.  The  excitement  could  hardly  have  been  more  general 
or  more  intense  if  some  principle  had  been  at  stake,  or  something 
important  had  hinged  on  the  result.  But  there  was  no  principle, 
nothing  important,  in  issue — any  more  than  when  the  rowdies  of 
two  hemispheres  were  frenzied  over  the  prize  fight  between  Tom 
Sayres  and  John  C.  Heenan.  Alas,  that  I  recollect  these  names 
so  well ! 

Something  good,  however,  may  come  of  this  childish  emulation. 
The  athlete  has  his  uses.  “  Out  of  the  strong  came  forth  sweet¬ 
ness.”  A  whole  nation  has  its  attention  directed  for  an  hour  to 
the  subject  of  physical  culture.  The  art  of  living  is  getting  to  be 
better  understood.  Already  the  average  duration  of  life  is  in¬ 
creased.  The  armor  of  five  hundred  years  ago  is  too  small  for 
the  soldiers  of  to-day. 

This  assertion  of  progress  must  not  be  universally  applied. 
Whole  races  of  men  are  visibly  dying  out.  Farewell  to  the  Sand¬ 
wich  Islander  and  the  American  Indian  !  Travelers  who  visited 
Borne  thirty  years  ago  tell  us  that  the  people  there  have  perceptibly 
declined  in  beauty  within  that  period.  The  Gallic  blood  is  out¬ 
stripped  by  the  German.  The  Prussian  soldiers  are  larger  and 
handsomer  than  the  French.  When  it  comes  to  the  bayonet,  the 
Frenchman  goes  down. 

Medical  and  scientific  men  have  gained  something  in  their  in¬ 
vestigations  of  diet.  They  detect  the  solids  and  fluids  that  make 
up  the  body — so  much  calcium  in  the  bones,  nitrogen  in  the  tissues, 
iron  in  the  blood,  phosphorus  in  the  brain.  Agassiz  makes  the 
startling  announcement  that  the  intellect  may  be  illumined  by 
eating  food  containing  phosphorus — that  owing  to  their  diet  of 
fish,  the  dwellers  on  the  New  England  coast  are  brighter  thinkers 
than  those  inland.  If  this  be  so,  we  could  name  folks  who  ought  to 
eat  nothing  but  fish  while  the  world  standeth.  But  I  fear  it  is  too 
good  to  be  true !  Bobert  Montgomery,  or  Martin  Farquhar 
Tupper,  not  to  name  sundry  poets  nearer  home,  might  eat  phos¬ 
phorus  till  his  head  shone  like  a  boy’s  pumpkin  lantern— we 
should  get  no  poetry  into  him  or  out  of  him. 


16 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY 


The  soul  shapes  the  body.  The  faces  of  aged  couples,  after 
fifty  years  of  harmonious  union,  often  have  grown  strangely  simi¬ 
lar.  You  can  distinguish  at  a  glance  between  a  congregation  of 
Episcopalians  and  one  of  Methodists,  between  Calvinists  and  Uni- 
versalists.  Years  ago,  in  his  address  at  laying  the  corner  stone 
of  this  building,  the  king  of  preachers  said,  “  I  think  if  my  eyes 
were  bandaged,  and  I  were  set  down  in  Boston  at  night,  without 
knowing  where  I  was,  by  looking  on  the  faces  of  the  people  I 
could  tell  what  city  I  was  in.  I  could  tell  it  by  what  I  call  the 
cerebral  look — the  look  of  brain  in  men’s  faces  !” 

Accordingly,  as  the  best  brain- work  cannot  be  secured  without 
bodily  perfection,  neither  can  bodily  perfection  be  secured  without 
good  brain-work.  Close  thought  is  healthful.  Look  at  the  tor¬ 
rent  of  blood  that  rushes  through  the  great  carotid  arteries.  It 
indicates  cerebral  activity. 

Who  knows  what  symmetry  and  vigor  of  body,  as  well  as  of 
mind,  may  be  the  result  of  a  long  period  of  harmonious  and 
intelligent  training?  May  there  not  be  in  the  body,  as  in  the 
soul,  a  capacity  of  unlimited  improvement  ?  Who  shall  say  that 
the  days  of  antediluvian  longevity  may  not  return  ?  They  that 
obey  all  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  Grod,  or,  in  the  language  of  the 
prophet,  “  they  that  wait  on  the  Lord  shall  renew  their  strength ; 
they  shall  mount  up  on  wings  as  eagles ;  they  shall  run,  and  not 
be  weary ;  they  shall  walk  and  not  faint.” 

If  bodily  education  has  been  imperfect,  mental  has  not  been  less 
so.  No  subject  has  a  greater  number  of  unsolved  problems  than 
education.  Questions  concerning  the  nature  of  the  mind,  its 
faculties,  its  relations,  its  diseases,  its  food,  its  growth,  its  destiny — 
the  proper  object  to  be  arrived  at  in  its  training,  whether  the 
attainment  of  knowledge  or  power,  learning  or  discipline — these 
and  many  other  questions  are  still  undecided. 

What  shall  we  study ,  and  how  much  ? 

This  may  be  premised — that  the  field  of  knowledge  has  lately 
been  vastly  expanded.  The  last  ten  years  have  witnessed  the 
miracles  of  spectrum  analysis.  The  last  three  months  have  added 
many  pages  of  momentous  history. 

Five  hundred  years  ago  the  feudal  lord  in  Parliament  subscribed 
his  name  like  Philip,  King  of  the  Wampanoags.  “  His  sign 
manual,”  says  Carlyle,  “  was  the  print  of  his  iron  hand,  duly 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


17 


inked  and  clapt  upon  the  parchment.”  “  He  was  most  enviably 
educated,  though  he  had  not  a  book  on  his  premises.”  Two 
hundred  and  seventy  years  ago  Francis  Bacon  could,  without 
presumption,  write  to  his  uncle,  Cecil,  “  I  have  taken  all  knowl¬ 
edge  to  be  my  province.”  Milton  is  supposed  to  have  read  all 
that  was  then  valuable  in  known  literature.  But  now  the  horizon 
of  knowledge  of  matter  alone,  has  so  receded  that  not  even 
Humboldt,  in  his  majestic  life  of  ninety  years,  grows  tall  enough 
to  sweep  with  his  eye  the  whole  circumference.  And  when  we 
add  literature,  psychology,  history,  the  most  gigantic  intellect 
can  but  repeat  the  simile  of  Hewton,  “  I  am  but  a  little  child, 
gathering  a  few  pebbles  on  the  shore,  while  the  great  ocean  of 
truth  lies  all  unexplored.” 

The  branches  of  study  in  some  schools  have  been  alarmingly 
multiplied,  until,  in  the  effort  to  grasp  everything,  the  pupil  too 
often  lays  firm  hold  of  nothing.  Multiplicity  is  necessarily  super¬ 
ficiality.  Every  study  has  its  special  devotees,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  is  no  study  but  some  think  it  useless.  Within  the 
last  three  weeks  one  parent  has  told  me  he  regarded  arithmetic 
as  worthless ;  another  told  me  the  same  thing  of  grammar ;  another 
still,  said  the  same  of  geography.  “Anything  but  history,”  said 
a  deep  thinker,  “  that  must  be  false  !” 

We  cannot  please  everybody,  and  therefore,  except  in  certain 
institutions  which  flatter  themselves  they  have  found  a  royal  road 
to  learning,  putting  you  through  the  whole  circle  of  studies  with 
railroad  speed,  stopping  five  minutes  at  every  Stamford  for  French 
coffee,  and  twenty  minutes  at  every  Turner’s  for  scientific  hash, 
and  two  minutes  at  every  station  to  drink  from  some  fountain  of 
aesthetics,  with  literary  prize  candy  and  moral  sandwiches  and 
the  ethereal  melodies  of  imported  harpers  and  violinists  all  along 
the  route — except  in  these  wonder-working  universities  for  in¬ 
fants — the  American  public  seems  to  be  settling  down  into  the 
opinion  that  a  few  solid  branches  of  study  ought  everywhere  to 
form  the  basis  of  education  :  enough  of  grammar  to  enable  one  to 
speak  and  write  his  mother  tongue  fluently  and  correctly ;  enough 
of  mathematics  to  enable  him  to  manipulate  figures  with  speed 
and  precision ;  enough  of  geography  to  avoid  the  error  of  Timothy 
Dexter,  who  sent  warming  pans  to  the  West  Indies! 

But,  surely,  he  who  stops  with  these  rudiments,  however  well 
he  may  be  fitted  to  make  money,  or  shine  in  a  coal  pit,  or  wriggle 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY 


18 

into  office,  is  not  educated.  We  hear  much  of  a  business  education , 
meaning  an  education  that  trains  simply  to  get  money  and  keep 
accounts.  It  is  no  education  at  all,  and,  as  for  business,  it  too 
often  deserves  the  stinging  rebuke  of  honest,  clear-headed  old 
John  Jacob  Astor,  “They  cheats  one  another,  and  they  calls  that 
business .”  A  great  mistake  at  the  present  time  is  the  custom  of 
withdrawing  boys  from  school  at  a  tender  age,  that  they  may  be 
placed  in  trade.  It  arises  from  our  American  haste  to  get  rich, 
or  from  that  spirit  of  enterprise  which  brings  so  many  prematurely 
into  professional  life.  Parents  like  to  see  their  sons  established 
in  paying  situations,  and  to  feel  that  they  can  command  incomes. 
But  is  it  dealing  fairly  with  the  mind  of  a  boy  a  dozen  years  old  ? 
They  train  him  to  garner  wealth,  but  deprive  him  of  the  culture 
which  is  needed  to  enable  him  to  enjoy  it.  When  the  inestimable 
treasures  of  knowledge  lie  all  around,  and  every  day  is  increasing 
them ;  when  earth  and  sky  are  growing  lustrous  with  riches  that 
shame  El  Dorado ;  when,  with  spectroscope  and  microscope  and 
telescope,  crystals  of  thought  are  shooting  further  and  further  into 
unknown  deeps,  and  what  were  but  now  thin  films  of  speculation 
over  a  dark  chaos,  become  firm  bridges  spanning  transparent 
seas — at  such  a  time  to  dim  the  vision  of  the  soul  to  all  that  is 
grand  and  beautiful,  to  stop  its  ears  to  melodies  that  might  sound 
in  his  soul  forever,  to  clip  the  wings  that  would  serve  him  when  an 
angel,  to  cut  off  nine  tenths  of  the  sources  of  joy  and  inspiration,  to 
lower  him  towards  the  brute  and  teach  him  practically  that  he  is 

“  Born  to  eat  and  be  despised  and  die, 

Even  as  the  beasts  that  perish,  save  that  he 
Hath  a  more  splendid  trough  and  wider  stye!” 

what  is  all  this  dwarfing  and  benumbing  process  but  a  kind  of 
soul-murder  ? 

It  should  be  the  business  of  parents  and  teachers  to  keep  alive 
the  ardor  of  youth.  The  child  naturally  loves  knowledge  as  it 
loves  sunlight.  A  boy  without  enthusiasm,  without  a  deep  and 
intelligent  interest  in  anything,  without  inquisitiveness  and  with¬ 
out  zeal,  may  grow  up  into  a  tolerable  Indian,  or  calculating 
machine,  or  talking  automaton,  but  will  never  be  very  useful  to 
himself  or  others.  On  the  other  hand,  the  enthusiasm  of  child¬ 
hood,  if  united  with  a  fixed  purpose  and  fair  common  sense,  and 
the  power  of  patient  thought,  constitutes  the  very  essence  of 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


19 


genius.  “  Genius,”  says  Coleridge,  “  is  the  carrying  of  the  feel¬ 
ings  of  youth  into  the  powers  of  manhood.”  These  are  remarkable 
words  of  one  of  the  profoundest  of  thinkers.  Whipple  incredu¬ 
lously  asks,  “  did  Napoleon  conquer  at  Austerlitz  by  carrying  the 
feelings  of  youth  into  the  powers  of  manhood  ?”  To  which  it  may 
be  answered,  that  the  contagious  enthusiasm  of  Napoleon,  filling 
the  breasts  of  all  French  soldiers,  won  Austerlitz,  Jena,  and  forty 
other  battles.  A  gifted  poet  sings — 

“  Who  is  the  happy  warrior  ?  who  is  ho 
That  every  man  in  arms  would  wish  to  be  ? 

It  is  the  generous  spirit,  which,  when  brought 
Among  the  tasks  of  real  life,  hath  wrought 
Upon  the  plan  that  pleased  its  childish  thought.” 

Youthful  ardor  is  a  sacred  thing.  Wordsworth  finds  in  it 
unmistakable  intimations  of  the  soul’s  immortality.  It  is  the  first 
business  of  the  educator  to  recognize  it,  cultivate  it,  guide  it  in 
the  right  way,  and,  above  all,  never  to  stifle  it.  “  Diligent  in 
business,  fervent  in  spirit,”  is  the  apostolic  injunction.  Fervent 
in  spirit !  Never  a  sadder  sight  than  he  whose  fervor  is  all  gone ; 
the  flashing  fountains  of  intellect  stagnated ;  the  blooming  chari¬ 
ties  shriveled ;  the  conscience  seared  ;  the  sensibilities  benumbed ; 
the  joyous  inspiration  that  filled  the  soul  and  lifted  it  as  on  wings 
and  made  it  strong  to  do  or  to  suffer — 

“  Whither  is  fled  the  visionary  gleam  ; 

Where  is  it  now,  the  glory  and  the  dream  ?” 

Mournful,  indeed,  and  unnatural  as  mournful,  yet  among  the 
commonest  of  experiences,  is  this  dying  out  of  the  Promethean 

fire. 

We  must  cultivate,  too ,  the  habit  of  close  and  patient  thought. 
To  this  power  of  patient  thought,  Newton  attributed  all  his 
amazing  discoveries.  The  Germans  have  a  proverb,  “  Nothing  is 
so  fruitful  as  a  little,  well  learned.”  Our  fathers,  with  all  their 
disadvantages,  had  this  superiority  in  their  education — that  they 
were  not  compelled  to  scatter  their  intellectual  energies  in  a 
hundred  directions  at  once.  German  scholarship,  German  art, 
and  German  science  are  pre-eminent  to-day,  because  of  this  habit 
of  long,  patient,  unflagging  concentration  of  thought  and  work. 
A  few  studies,  thoroughly  mastered,  multum,  non  multa,  should 
be  our  aim.  What  a  political  opponent  said  of  a  certain  presi¬ 
dential  candidate  might  be  affirmed  of  a  man  who  spreads  his 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY 


20 

thought  over  fifty  subjects  of  study,  “  He  was  a  large  man  up  in 
Concord  ;  but  when  you  come  to  spread  him  over  this  whole  nation, 
he  is  mighty  thin  !” 

We  must  be  catholic  in  our  views  of  education ,  avoiding  narrow¬ 
ness  and  bigotry,  recognizing  the  value  of  all  truth,  and  shunning 
the  temptation  to  make  our  own  pet  science  or  specialty  the 
nucleus  of  a  little  mutual-admiration  society.  We  hear  much  at 
this  day  from  a  class  of  scientists  to  the  effect  that  “  the  study  of 
nature, ”  meaning  the  material  world,  “is  the  worthiest  study.” 
It  is,  indeed,  a  magnificent  field — a  field  that  most  richly  repays 
the  explorer;  and  if  we  recognize  in  material  objects  a  divine 
plan  and  the  presence  of  a  divine  shaping  power ;  if  we  feel  in  the 
study  of  physical  science  that  we  but  think  over  again  His 
thoughts,  then  the  study  of  nature  becomes  the  entrance  into  the 
very  presence  of  the  Most  High.  But  how  happens  it  that  so 
many  scientific  men  are  losing  faith  in  everything  but  what  they 
can  see  with  their  eyes,  or  feel  with  their  hands,  or  test  with  their 
crucibles?  More  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  Goldsmith,  in  his 
Chinese  letters,  laughed  at  those  who  set  up  for  savans  because 
they  had  studied  for  twenty-five  years  some  such  object  as  the 
proboscis  of  a  flea,  or  had  written  huge  volumes  on  the  dissection 
of  a  caterpillar.  And  well  do  some  of  them  deserve  ridicule,  or 
pity,  rather ;  not  for  the  littleness  of  the  subject  they  investigate, 
but  for  their  utter  lack  of  appreciation  of  the  lessons  it  conveys. 
Here,  in  the  humblest  insect,  are  clear  traces  of  divine  fingers — a 
skill,  a  delicacy,  a  wisdom  so  amazing,  a  chemistry  so  subtle,  a 
mechanism  so  complicated  and  exquisite,  that  none  but  a  modern 
scientific  fool  could  gaze  upon  it  without  unutterable  admiration 
of  the  intelligence  that  made  it  what  it  is.  Well  may  we  study 
nature,  but  let  us  endeavor  to  gain  some  clear  view  of  what  lies 
beyond  matter,  and  feel  that 

“  Sense  sublime 

Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused. 

Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 

And  the  round  ocean,  and  the  living  air, 

And  in  the  mind  of  man.” 

After  all  man  is  the  real  Shekinah.  Wonderful  are  the  infinite 
forms  of  life  in  the  vegetable  and  animal  worlds;  grander  still  are 
the  vast  convulsions  whose  records  are  written  on  mountain 
heights  and  in  ocean  depths;  grandest  of  all  are  the  huge  worlds 


21 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 

that  are  spinning  and  plunging  through  the  skies. 

“  But  though  the  giant  ages  heave  the  hill 
And  break  the  shore,  and  evermore 
Make  and  break  and  work  their  will ; 

Though  world  on  world  in  myriads  roll 
Round  us,  each  with  different  powers 
And  other  forms  of  life  than  ours ; 

What  know  we  greater  than  the  soul  ?” 

Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  says,  “  The  first  requisite  in  education 
is  the  knowledge  of  right  and  wrong ;  the  next  is  an  acquaintance 
with  the  history  of  mankind  and  those  examples  that  may  be  said 
to  embody  truth.”  The  study  of  nature  does  not  furnish  this 
knowledge  nor  these  examples.  Last  winter  I  heard  a  scientific 
man,  a  professor  in  a  college,  lecture  in  favor  of  the  moderate 
drinking  of  alcoholic  liquors,  and  he  utterly  ignored  all  the 
moral  and  social  aspects  of  the  question,  and  based  his  argument 
wholly  on  the  physiological  effects  of  liquor  !  Surely,  we  need  an 
education  that  shall  bear  on  the  conduct  of  life — that  shall  make 
our  hearts  cheerful  and  brave,  our  minds  clear,  active,  patient, 
industrious,  comprehensive;  our  sympathies  j ust,  our  consciences 
keen. 

Every  individual  should  have  a  specialty  in  mental  labor .  It 
should  be  one  object  of  education  to  discover  and  develop  the 
natural  fitness  which  each  mind  has  for  some  branch  of  science, 
language,  literature,  philosophy,  art,  morals,  or  other  intellectual 
work.  Having  acquired  some  taste  and  skill  at  school  lit  such 
specialty,  the  leisure  hours  of  after  life  would  be  happily  spent  in 
prosecuting  that  study.  The  infinite  diversity  of  tastes  in  a  city 
like  Brooklyn  would  lead  to  an  infinite  diversity  of  mental  pur¬ 
suits.  How  multitudinous  and  how  brilliant  the  salient  points 
which  such  a  society  would  present !  How  rich,  beyond  expres¬ 
sion,  in  men  and  women  who  would  each  contribute  something  to 
the  general  good ! 

A  high  ideal  is  indispensable  to  be  formed  in  education.  Until 
this  is  clearly  conceived  the  youth  has  hardly  begun  to  live. 
Nothing  noble  can  be  achieved  without  steady,  earnest  effort,  and 
such  effort  will  not  be  made  without  some  fascinating  object. 
This  ideal  must  be  unselfishly  pursued,  must  include  others’  wel¬ 
fare  rather  than  his  own.  If,  at  the  end  of  the  career  he  marks 
out,  he  sees  only  himself,  however  robed  and  crowned,  his  aim  is 


22 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY 

low.  Yet  self-abnegation  and  self  sacrifice,  the  first  principles  in 
Christianity,  seem  the  last  lesson  we  learn.  A  sound  mind  in  a 
sound  body  is  not  education  :  it  is  only  the  basis  of  a  good  educa¬ 
tion.  To  make  the  lamp  of  truth  shine  brighter  or  farther,  to  lift 
men  higher  in  the  scale  of  being  and  to  honor  God — these  are  the 
legitimate  objects  to  be  sought.  But  so  long  as  children  are 
taught  by  precept  or  example  that  the  great  end  of  a  boy’s  life  is 
to  get  rich,  and  the  great  end  of  a  girl’s  life  is  to  get  married,  we 
must  look  for  frauds  in  the  counting  room  and  shams  in  the  parlor. 

What  is  success  in  life?  In  London,  in  1848,  two  special- 
policemen  were  sworn  in.  One  of  them  had  set  his  heart  on 
riches,  fame,  power.  Steadily  he  pursued  that  object.  No  ob¬ 
stacle  daunted  nor  scruple  of  conscience  withheld  him.  Deception, 
perjury,  murder,  he  counted  as  nothing.  He  reached  his  goal, 
became  immensely  rich,  had  an  income  of  fourteen  million  dol¬ 
lars  a  year,  was  recognized  by  many  as  the  first  business  man  iji 
Europe,  the  head  of  the  foremost  nation ;  in  the  eyes  of  the  world, t 
the  most  successful  man  living. 

“  The  Greeks  said  grandly,  in  their  tragic  verse, 

Let  no  man  be  called  happy  till  his  death.” 

Where  is  Louis  Napoleon  to-day? 

The  other  of  our  London  special-policemen  chose  a  life  of  self- 
sacrifice,  of  earnest  labor  for  the  cause  of  learning.  He  strove  to 
ameliorate  the  political  and  social  condition  of  the  British  masses. 
He  became  professor  of  history  in  a  great  English  university. 
The  Prince  of  Wales  was  his  pupil;  but  neither  the  patronage 
nor  the  sneers  of  the  British  aristocracy  could  turn  him  from  his 
purposes  of  philanthropy.  When  liberty  and  civilization  in  America 
were  at  stake,  his  voice  rang  out  loud  and  clear  in  behalf  of  union 
and  freedom.  To  arm  himself  more  fully  to  defend  our  cause,  he 
visited  this  country  and  studied  the  political  and  military  situa¬ 
tion.  Returning  to  England,  he  was  everywhere  recognized  as 
the  modest  but  invincible  champion  of  the  American  republic  in 
its  darkest  hours.  Two  years  ago  he  identified  himself  with  a 
new  American  university,  giving  it  a  library  worth  many  thous¬ 
ands  of  dollars,  giving  his  services,  without  compensation,  as 
professor  of  history,  and,  in  a  secret  way,  giving  liberally  in 
charity.  In  the  hearts  of  a  great  people,  and  in  the  warm  love 
of  those  whom  his  beneficence  has  blessed,  he  has  his  unspeakable 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


23 


reward.  Which  of  these  two  special-policemen  of  twenty  years 
ago  has  been  most  successful — Louis  Napoleon  or  Goldwin- 
Smith  ? 

Ah,  friends,  the  truest  success,  the  truest  heroism,  is  not  always- 
that  which  blazes  widest  or  is  sounded  farthest.  The  wave  of 
Lethe  veils  as  pure  and  fair — too  pure  and  too  fair  to  love  to  her 
gazed  at,  and  pointed  out,  and  crowned  with  laurels  that  grow  on 
earthly  soil.  On  the  other  hand,  that  life  is  a  terrible  failure 
which  has  no  better  results  to  show  than  a  heap  of  gold,  though 
the  miserable  man  be  clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen  and  fare 
sumptuously  every  day. 

Le  Sage  tells  of  two  Spanish  students  dismounted  for  lunch  by 
a  country  cemetery  on  the  road  from  Penafiel  to  Salamanca. 
When  they  had  finished  their  meal,  the  younger  began  to  read  the 
epitaphs.  On  one  stone  was  inscribed,  “  Here  lies  buried  the 
soul  of  Pedro  Garcia.”  “A  good  joke!”  he  exclaimed,  “ A  rich 
joke  !  ‘  Here  lies  buried  the  soul  of  Pedro  !’  A  soul  buried  !  I 

think  I’ll  leave  this  place  where  they  bury  souls  !”  He  rode 
away.  The  other,  shrewder,  after  a  little  reflection,  began  dig¬ 
ging,  to  find  what  this  buried  soul  of  Don  Pedro  might  be.  His 
search  was  rewarded  by  disinterring  a  pot  of  money,  bearing  this 
inscription  :  “  Whoever  thou  art,  that  hast  had  the  wit  to  find  me, 
welcome  to  this  treasure.  See  to  it  that  thy  soul  be  not  trans¬ 
formed,  like  Pedro  Garcia’s,  into  a  pot  of  money.”  But  the 
subject  is  too  serious  to  be  dismissed  with  a  smile.  “  Nature,” 
says  Carlyle,  “  when  her  scorn  of  a  slave  is  divinest  and  blazes 
like  the  blinding  lightning  against  his  slavehood,  often  enough 
flings  him  a  bag  of  money,  silently  saying,  1  That!  Away!  Thy 
doom  is  that !’  so  that  all  through  the  eternities  he  shall  have  no 
soul,  nor  manful  trace  of  ever  having  had  a  soul,  but  only  for  cer¬ 
tain  fleeting  moments  shall  have  had  a  money  bag.”  We  are 
brought  back  to  the  solemn  question  of  Scripture,  “  What  shall  it 
profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul?” 

But  let  us  not  decry  wealth.  It  is  a  good  thing  in  good  hands. 
Large  capital  is  required  before  Agassiz  can  explore  South 
America,  Hayes  penetrate  to  the  open  Polar  Sea,  Leverrier 
feel  his  way  to  an  unseen  planet,  Vassar  start  a  college,  Cornell 
a  university,  or  the  world  rejoice  in  Atlantic  cables,  Pacific  rail¬ 
road's  or  Suez  canal».  We  complain  that  property  drifts  like- 


24 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY. 


snow  into  a  few  great  heaps,  leaving  too  much  bare  ground.. 
Granted — but  let  us  not  forget  that  these  are  not  always  av¬ 
alanches  to  crush,  but  often  the  feeders  of  a  thousand  springs, 
diffusing  fertility  and  health  far  and  wide.  This  very  Academy 
owes  its  existence  as  a  public  institution,  and  will  owe  much  of  its 
growth  hereafter,  to  the  liberality  of  gentlemen  who,  by  sweat  of 
brow  or  brain,  have  accumulated  large  resources,  enabling  them 
to  become  almoners  of  divine  bounty — men  who  do  not  forget 
that  riches  are  a  means  and  not  an  end,  and  who  have  the  dis¬ 
position  as  well  as  the  ability  on  a  large  scale  thus  to  honor  God 
and  bless  mankind. 

Lastly,  it  is  needful  that  we  be  educated  to  be  governed  by  'prin¬ 
ciple  rather  than  sentiment.  An  ardent,  emotional  nature,  with¬ 
out  clear  conceptions  of  right,  is  a  steamer  all  engine  and  no 
rudder.  We  need  the  calm  clear  light  of  duty  shining  ever  upon 
us,  untinged  by  the  many-colored  media  of  sentiment,  undistorted 
by  the  lenses  of  emotion.  Our  Christianity  should  be  an  im¬ 
penetrable  shield  against  temptation.  The  amiable  weakness,  the 
accidental  goodness  of  Whittier’s  Andrew  Kykman  is  not 
enough — 

“  Doubtful,  when  I  fain  would  rest, 

Frailest,  where  I  seem  the  best, 

Only  strong  for  lack  of  test. 

Rich  alone  in  favors  lent, 

Virtuous  by  accident.” 

Our  morality  should  be  strong  enough,  not  merely  to  defy 
temptation,  but  to  take  the  offensive,  to  carry  the  war  into  the 
enemy’s  territory.  God’s  truth  is  aggressive — or  it  is  nothing  ! 

Gentlemen  of  the  Trustees  : — We  are  witness,  and  this 
community  is  witness,  to  your  unselfish  zeal  in  the  cause  of 
education.  With  no  prospect  of  pecuniary  reward  or  special 
worldly  advantage  to  yourselves,  you  have  given  freely  and  faith¬ 
fully  of  your  time,  your  skill,  your  best  efforts,  and  some  of  you,  of 
your  property,  to  this  institution.  May  it  stand  while  Brooklyn 
stands,  and  be  recognized  through  all  time  as  a  noble  monument 
of  your  wisdom,  your  liberality,  your  fidelity. 

Gentlemen,  you  have  committed  to  us  a  vast  responsibility — 
the  education  of  hundreds  of  children  from  early  youth  to  man¬ 
hood  and  womanhood — each  an  immortal  being,  existing  here 


INAUGURAL-  EXERCISES. 


25 


only  in  the'  germ,  as  the  oak  exists- in  the  acorn,  but  capable  of; 
endless  growth.  Soon  the  cares  and  labors  of  mature  life  will  be 
upon  them,  and  these  young  hands  and  hearts  and  brains  will  be 
busy  with  the  burdens  and  the  problems  of  the  hour.  Shall  they 
carry  forward  the  standard  of  civilization  and  Christianity  ? 
Shall  they  live  nobly  and  lift  mankind  higher  ?  I  know  with 
what  anxiety  you  ask  these  questions  in  regard  to  those  you 
love. 

You  have  shown  your  confidence  in  us  by  committing  them  to 
our  care ;  for  your  own  children  are  among  these  pupils.  With  a 
trembling  hand  we  take  this  trust.  We  pledge  ourselves-  as 
teachers  to  spare  no  pains,  to  shrink  from  no  toil,  to  be  daunted 
by  no  obstacles,  in  the  delicate  and  difficult  process  of  training 
these  immortals.  In  this  work  we  ask  your  co-operation,  your 
sympathy,  and  your  prayers. 

Fellow  Teachers  : — You  see  your  calling.  It  is  the  calling  of 
Pythagoras,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Pestalozzi,  Arnold,  Milton — 
a  vocation  as  much  more  vital  than  painting  or  sculpture  as  mind 
is  more  precious  than  matter.  Slowly  it  is  coming  to  be  esti¬ 
mated  at  its  true  worth,  and  the  teacher  stands  higher  now7-  than 
ever  before ;  but  it  is  still,  in  many  cases,  missionary  work. 
Only  by  a  firm  faith  in  Grod  and  in  the  great  hereafter,  and  by 
the  love  of  those  committed  to  his  care,  can  the  teacher  find  his 
best  support  and  reward.  Look  forward,  then,  to  that  not  dis¬ 
tant  day,  when  many  stations  of  honor  and  usefulness  shall  be 
filled  by  those  whom  you  shall  have  given  a  deeper  insight  into 
logic,  history,  philosophy,  life  ;  or  made  keener  to  discern  the 
meaning  hid  in  tree  and  flower,  in  tinted  woods,  in  the  flush  of 
the  evening  sky,  in  the  silver  spangles  that  tremble  in  the  infinite 
blue ;  or  quicker  to  catch  the  divine  melody  that  ripples  from  birds, 
murmurs  through  pines,  gurgles  in  rills,  thunders  in  ocean,  or 
whispers  in  the  still  voice  of  Him  who  is  ever  kind  and  ever  near. 
Think  sometimes  of  the  coming  ages,  when  this  chrysalis  state  shall 
be  ended,  and  the  celestial  inhabitant  shall  be  in  full  career  of 
endless  improvement — a  symmetrical  soul !  Never  did  a  more 
glorious  vision  light  the  picture  galleries  of  poet’s  or  painter’s  or 
sculptor’s  brain. 

Oh !  fortunate,  if  you  but  know  your  own  blessedness  !  Lead 


26 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY. 


these  youths  and  maidens  into  that  career ;  form  in  their  minds 
a  bright  ideal ;  foster  in  them  an  undying  purpose ;  guide  and 
guard  them  in  the  path  that  is  fenced  by  eternal  principles  ;  make 
them  strong  for  life  and  duty.  0  brothers,  sisters,  respect 
your  calling!  The  chord  you  strike  in  these  young  hearts  may 
vibrate  through  eternity.  Your  lightest  finger  touch  on  these 
plastic  minds  may  leave  its  print  forever.  Your  work  is  humble, 
yet  sublime — 

“  A  work  that,  like  the  moonbeam,  rests 

One  end  on  earth  and  one  amid  the  stars  !” 

Pupils  of  the  Adelphi  Academy  : — All  this  is  for  you. 
tl  All  the  care  of  the  dear  parent  centres  in  Ascanius.”  Parents 
love  their  children  more  than  children  love  their  parents.  What¬ 
ever  may  be  done  for  you  by  kindness,  diligence  and  care,  will  be 
done.  But  remember,  God  helps  those  who  help  themselves. 
There  is  no  good  education  that  is  not  chiefly  self-education. 
Cherish  a  high  ideal.  Seek  to  make  the  most  of  yourselves,  to 
perfect  your  bodies  in  order  that  you  may  perfect  your  minds 
and  hearts.  Seek  not  pleasure.  Happiness  is  the  bright  shadow 
of  him  who  toils  in  the  sunlight  of  duty  :  never  turn  your  back 
upon  duty  to  chase  this  shadow.  Be  not  anxious  about  the 
future  :  be  only  anxious  always  to  do  present  duty.  Find,  if 
possible,  a  joy  in  your  work.  Think  how  splendid  is  the  career 
before  you,  if  faithful,  in  the  wondrous  age  in  which  you  live,  the 
nation  of  which  you  are  a  part,  the  city  which  is  your  home. 
Seek  not  chiefly  riches,  fame  or  power ;  but  to  diminish  suffering, 
to  promote  purity,  to  make  man  more  manly  and  woman  more 
womanly,  and  all  more  saintly;  to  increase  the  sum  of  human 
happiness.  Sooner  or  later,  by  unerring  instinct,  such  as  guided 
the  choice  of  young  Achilles,  or  by  such  a  clear  conception  of 
duty  as  left  St.  Paul  no  alternative,  choose  a  life-work  of  philan¬ 
thropy  ;  some  noble  cause  to  which  all  the  currents  of  your  being 
may  set ;  some  zenith  of  achievement  towards  which  all  the  auroral 
flashes  of  hope  may  tend.  There  live  and  work,  ever  higher  and 
higher,  with  new  inspirations  and  aspirations,  neither  seeking  nor 
shunning  unpopularity,  never  anxious  for  death  nor  yet  stingy  of 
life — till  pain  lose  its  sting  and  wasting  toil  seem  like  a  glorious 
revel,  and  the  hardest  struggles  but  the  exultant  play  of  limbs 
that  feel  immortality  1  God  be  with  you. 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


27- 


Fellow  Citizens  : — This  Academy  is  for  you  and  your  chil¬ 
dren.  Help  us  to  build  up  in  this  lovely  quarter  of  Brooklyn  an 
institution  in  which  there  shall  be  no  shams — an  institution  that 
shall  make  it  unnecessary  to  send  your  sons  and  your  daughters 
away  from  their  homes  to  obtain  a  thorough  education.  Second 
the  efforts  of  these  trustees  and  these  earnest  men,  who  have  given 
time  and  labor  and  money  that  they  might  establish,  not  for 
themselves,  ‘but  for  you  and  for  posterity,  an  institution  that 
should  be  a  perpetual  blessing  to  this  city  and  the  state. 

Brooklyn  is  already  the  metropolis  of  religion  in  America.  It 
should  be  the  metropolis  of  learning.  Unite  the  two,  and  in  the 
world-conflicts  that  impend,  this  city  will  be  the  chief  centre  and 
stronghold  of  the  coming  civilization.  The  coming  civilization ! 
for  through  the  lurid  smoke  of  European  war  glimmers  the  white 
dawn. 

“We  may  not  live  to  see  the  day, 

But  earth  shall  glisten  in  the  ray 
Of  the  good  time  coming,” 

when  the  little  stone,  cut  from  the  mountain  without  hands, 
rough,  unsightly,  rejected  of  the  builders,  a  stone  of  stumbling 
and  a  rock  of  offense,  yet  ever  moving  irresistibly  onward,  break¬ 
ing  him  that  falls  upon  it  and  grinding  to  powder  him  on  whom 
it  falls,  shall  be  seen  by  all  men  to  possess  eternal  fitness  and 
beauty,  and  shall  be  made  the  corner  stone  of  the  great  temple  of 
the  world’s  civilization. 

“  For  I  dipt  into  the  future,  far  as  human  eye  could  see ; 

Saw  the  vision  of  the  world  and  all  the  wonders  that  should  be ; 

Saw  the  heavens  fill  with  commerce,  argosies  of  magic  sails, 

Pilots  of  the  purple  twilight,  dropping  down  with  costly  bales ; 

Heard  the  heavens  fill  with  shoutings,  and  there  rained  a  ghastly  dew 
From  the  nations’  airy  navies  grappling  in  the  central  blue. 

Far  along  the  world-wide  whisper  of  the  south  wind  rushing  warm, 

With  the  standards  of  the  peoples  plunging  through  the  thunder  storm ; 

Till  the  war  drum  throbbed  no  longer,  and  the  battle  flags  were  furled 
In  the  Parliament  of  man,  the  Federation  of  the  world.” 


Dr.  Budington  : — We  have  among  us,  to-night,  some  of  the 
most  distinguished  educators  of  the  land.  We  have  here  repre¬ 
sentatives  of  two  most  celebrated  institutions  in  this  city,  which\ 
have  been  founded  for  the  generations  to  come,  and  which  have. 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY 


28' 

been  doing  some  of  the  best  work  that  is  done  anywhere.  We 
have  with  us,  also,  representatives  of  the  learned  professions  and 
men  who  represent  the  various  interests  of  the  community.  It 
was  expected  that  an  opportunity  would  be  given  for  these  gentle¬ 
men  to  express  what,  I  am  sure,  pulsates  in  every  one  of  our 
breasts — the.  disposition  to  give  Prof.  Sprague  the  assurance  that 
he  will  have  our  sympathy  and  co-operation  in  his  endeavors  to 
realize  the  magnificent  plan  which  he  has  just  laid  before  us. 

We  shall  now  be  favored  with  some  music,  after  which  we  shall 
have  the  pleasure  of  listening  to  Dr.  Cochran,  Principal  of  the 
Polytechnic  Institute. 

j^EMAF^KS  BY  JDr.  pOCHF^AN. 

Mr.  President,  Members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  and 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — We  have  not  forgotten  the  good  old 
lady  who  said  of  her  son,  “  John  is  rather  a  weakly  boy,  not  able 
to  work  upon  the  farm  ;  he  is  too  honest  altogether  to  be  a  lawyer, 
and  he  is  not  quite  peart  enough  for  a  doctor ;  so,  I  think  the 
Lord  designed  him  either  to  preach  or  to  teach.” 

How,  if  I  entertained  this  good  lady’s  opinion  of  teachers,  I 
should  be  ready  to  welcome  almost  any  person  to  the  teachers’ 
ranks;  but  twenty-six  years  spent  in  association  with  teachers 
have  convinced  me  that  there  are  very  few  teachers  fitted  either 
by  nature  or  by  culture  to  meet  the  requirements  of  their  high 
vocation.  I  therefore  rejoice  most  sincerely  to  welcome  one  whom 
I  believe  to  be  a  real  acquisition  to  the  teachers’  ranks  in  the 
city  of  Brooklyn.  Teaching,  at  best,  involves  a  great  deal  of 
drudgery.  It  is  a  weariness  to  the  flesh,  and  at  times  a  sore  trial 
of  temper  and  patience.  A  man  or  woman  who  engages  in  the 
teachers’  vocation  without  a  taste  and  a  fitness  for  the  calling,  will 
go  through  its  daily  duties  with  inward  weariness  and  disgust, 
and,  sooner  or  later,  will  ignominiously-  fail.  Good  teachers  ,  are 
scarce.  Great  teachers,  such  as  Dr.  Arnold,  of  Bugby,  appear 
only  once  or  twice  in  a  century ;  for  such  a  teacher  must  unite 
gifts  and  attainments  which  are  rarely  found  combined  in  the 
same  individual.  To  intellectual  force  and  penetration  there 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


29 


must  be  added  rare  tact — I  might  say  a  genius — for  his  work. 
He  must  have  a  fresh,  lowly,  loving  heart,  in  sympathy  with  God, 
and  nature,  and  humanity.  And  above  all,  he  must  be  in  active 
sympathy  with  childhood.  He  must  be  himself  a  child  in  heart. 
He  must  have  kept  up  the  continuity  of  his  inner  life,  so  that  no 
chasm  of  sin  and  remorse  and  worldliness  shall  separate  his  present 
from  his  boyhood  consciousness.  He  must  be  able  in  a  moment 
to  travel  back  again  to  that  hour  of  u  splendor  in  the  grass,  of 
glory  in  the  flower.”  He  must  have  the  power,  from  his  own 
experience,  to  reproduce  in  his  own  mind  those  processes  which 
are  going  on  under  a  boy’s  cap  and  jacket.  And  yet,  he  must 
not  fail  to  look  beyond,  and  recognize  the  fact  that  the  true  busi¬ 
ness  of  education  is  to  move  and  exalt ;  to  awaken  the  heart  to 
the  consciousness  of  the  glory  and  grandeur  of  God’s  universe, 
and  to  prompt  to  adoration  and  awe.  He  must  remember  that 
he  lays,  as  it  were,  his  hand  upon  the  soul  of  the  child,  and  forms 
and  fits  it  for  some  future  towards  which  it  is  advancing :  shapes 
its  views,  aims,  feelings  and  actions.  He  thus  makes  it  not  only 
right  or  wrong  intellectually ,  but  good  or  bad  morally  and 
religiously.  We  cannot  escape  the  responsibility  of  these  results  ; 
for  the  boy  will  leave  school  with  some  character  developed ;  and 
with  whomsoever  he  has  been  in  contact  the  responsibility  rests. 

Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  I  sin¬ 
cerely  congratulate  you  in  having  secured  a  gentleman  whom  we 
believe  to  unite,  in  an  eminent  degree,  the  qualities  of  the 
true  teacher ;  and  it  becomes  your  duty  to  support  and  sustain 
him  in  every  effort  he  makes  to  advance  the  cause  of  sound  educa¬ 
tion  in  our  midst.  I  believe  you  are  resolved,  throwing  aside  all 
clap-trap  and  flummery,  to  recommend  your  institution  to  the 
confidence  of  the  public  by  the  character  of  its  work.  And  if,  in 
applying  the  test  of  rigid  scholarship  and  excellence,  you  lose 
some  pupils  and  the  patronage  of  some  who  care  more  for  the 
name  of  education  than  for  the  reality,  you  are  not  to  be  fright¬ 
ened  ;  because,  for  every  pupil  you  lose  from  this  reason,  sooner 
or  later  you  will  gain  five. 

Prof.  Sprague,  I  most  earnestly  welcome  you  to  our  fraternity 
of  teachers.  I  gladly  extend  to  you  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  ; 
and  I  promise  you,  so  long  as  you  are  true  to  yourself,  and  true 
to  the  course  of  sound  education,  you  shall  have  the  hearty  sup¬ 
port  and  sympathy  of  every  true  teacher. 


30 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY 


Dr.  Budington — God  be  thanked  for  the  Polytechnic.  God 
be  thanked,  also,  for  the  Packer,  which  is  the  twin  sister  of  the 
Polytechnic.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  Prof. 
Eaton. 


of 


Mr.  President,  Members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  and 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — The  first  thing  I  have  to  say  is,  that 
I  am  not  the  “  Packer;”  I  am  neither  the  Principal  nor  the 
pupils,  and  to-night  I  scarcely  know  what  I  am.  I  feel  very  sure 
that  I  am  not  a  good  teacher,  according  to  the  high  standard 
which  has  been  raised  here  to-night.  I  feel  utterly  to  sink 
beneath  it.  I  have,  however,  a  great  admiration  for  a  good 
teacher — a  teacher  good  and  true  to  the  great  cause  of  humanity; 
to  the  great  cause  of  religion ;  to  the  growth  of  the  human  soul. 
And  I  am  very  glad  indeed  to  know,  by  the  earnestness  of  that 
address  to  which  we  have  listened  to-night,  that  we  have  among 
us  not  only  a  good  teacher  but  a  true  man  and  an  earnest  worker ; 
a  man  who  knows  what  true  education  is,  and  what  it  demands  of 
both  teacher  and  pupil.  He  has  evidently  studied  its  great  prob¬ 
lems  not  only  in  the  light  of  metaphysics  but  of  common  sense; 
and,  better  yet,  has  moulded  his  own  character  into  that  full, 
rounded  form  which  makes  the  true  man,  and  yet,  as  has  been 
intimated  by  my  predecessor,  appreciates  the  boy. 

My  dear  friends,  it  is  a  pleasure  to  witness  this  uprising  in 
Brooklyn  of  an  appreciation  of  true  education.  There  is  a  great 
deal  of  quackery  in  the  world.  We  find  it  in  almost  every  pro¬ 
fession.  But  the  greatest  quackery  in  education  at  the  present 
day  lies  in  the  use  of  that  little  adjective,  practical .  We  boast  of 
practical  education ,  and  what  is  called  'practical  education  is 
practically  no  education.  Take,  for  instance,  our  boys — but  we 
have  no  boys !  Professor  Sprague,  I  beg  to  inform  you,  boys  are 
out  of  fashion  among  us !  Our  population  is  made  up  either  of 
babies  or  men.  There  is  very  little  of  that  good  old  transition 
state  which  we  used  to  call  boyhood.  The  boy,  as  soon  as  he  is 
fairly  out  of  babyhood,  buckles  on  his  armor  for  the  strifes  of 
business,  and  is  ready  for  the  great  struggles  of  Wall  street! 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


31 


And  you  know  how  it  is  with  girls.  I  do,  at  any  rate ;  and  I 
say  that  it  is  entirely  true,  as  was  intimated  in  the  address, 
that  the  chief  aim  of  a  boy  is  to  get  rich,  and  of  a  girl  is  to  marry 
a  rich  boy. 

Poor  boys  are  of  no  account.  The  chief  end  of  man,  according 
to  the  popular  catechism,  is  to  get  rich.  Hence  this  haste  to  enter 
business. 

How,  my  friends,  I  know  that  this  man  (Prof.  Sprague)  be¬ 
lieves  in  no  such  practical  education  as  that  which  consists  in 
picking  out  a  profession  for  a  man  while  yet  a  boy,  and  training 
him  for  that  profession  only.  I  see  in  his  address  a  keen  sense  of 
the  importance  of  a  broad  foundation.  And  as  in  this  nineteenth 
century  trees  do  not  grow  any  faster  than  they  did  a  thousand 
years  ago,  neither  do  boys.  The  growth  of  mind  requires  the 
same  nourishment — the  same  patient,  persevering  effort  that  it 
has  in  all  the  ages  past.  And  the  idea  which  is  going  to  prevail 
in  later  days — in  the  good  time  coming — is,  that  education,  to  be 
truly  practical,  must  not  be  special,  but  general.  It  must  consist 
of  a  careful,  consistent,  thorough  discipline  of  ihe  whole  mind. 
It  therefore  becomes  the  first  duty  of  the  u  teacher  to  study  care¬ 
fully  the  individual  characters  of  his  pupils  and  learn  their  power  ; 
then  place  before  them  such  difficulties  to  be  overcome,  and  such 
problems  to  be  solved  as  shall  best  develop  their  powers  and 
strengthen  the  mind.” 

Our  object  is  to  lay  a  deep,  broad  foundation  that  will  fit  a  boy, 
not  for  one  profession,  but  for  any  profession  or  business  of  life. 
It  matters  not  what  a  man  is  going  to  be;  he  needs  to  have  that 
mind  of  his  expanded,  strengthened,  educated  by  a  thorough  dis¬ 
cipline.  What  I  mean  by  discipline  now,  is  hard,  earnest  thought. 
And  so  it  is  with  young  ladies.  No  education  is  truly  practical 
that  does  not  lay  the  same  deep,  broad  foundation  for  future 
character  and  future  work.  Parents  have  often  said  to  me,  “  I 
do  not  care  to  have  my  daughter  study  algebra,  and  geometry  and 
things  of  that  sort.  It  would  be  all  well  enough  if  she  were  to 
be  a  teacher,  but  she  can  dress  and  receive  company  well  engugh 
without  them.” 

But  I  tell  you,  my  friends,  that  if  a  young  lady  can  con¬ 
quer  a  problem  in  algebra,  she  will  conquer  a  problem  in 
the  kitchen  when  the  servant  leaves.  She  becomes,  by  sur. 


32 


ADELPHl  ACADEMY 


mounting  such  difficulties,  a  practical  woman  in  the  highest  sense 
of  the  term,  and  not  a  mere  lady  of  fashion  or  girl  of  the  period. 
This  idea  of  selecting  for  a  boy  a  certain  profession,  and  training 
him  for  that,  comes  from  the  false  notion  that  education  is  knowl¬ 
edge.  It  is  not  so.  The  object  of  education  is  not  to  get  infor¬ 
mation  simply,  but  to  employ  prodesses  that  shall  reach  certain 
results.  And  this  conscious  power  of  wielding  truth  and  of  con¬ 
quering  difficulties  will  send  a  boy  out  into  the  world  fitted  to  en¬ 
gage  in  the  great  battle  of  life,  and  to  achieve  that  victory  which 
comes  from  a  thorough  discipline  like  that  to  which  the  Prussian 
soldiers  have  been  subjected. 

And  now,  Professor  Sprague,  I  too,  give  you  my  hand.  I 
welcome  you  most  heartily  to  our  city.  God  bless  you,  sir,  and 
bless  the  school  under  your  care. 


Dr.  Budington. — We  have  heard  from  the  teachers.  We 
have  here,  also,  of  the  clergy,  Rev.  Drs.  Duryea,  Hunt  and 
Moore.  Then  we  have  distinguished  members  of  the  Judiciary 
with  us.  And  I  see  my  friend,  Gen.  Slocum,  who  represents  the 
great  arm  of  the  nation  which  has  made  us  what  we  are.  We 
will  nowT  listen  to  Dr.  Duryea. 

/lddi^ess  by  JDr.  JD u p^yea. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — I  shall  be  very  brief,  because  I 
come  after  several  speakers,  and  you  will  probably  have  to  hear 
some  more. 

I  wish  simply  to  say  that  during  the  absence  of  the  President 
of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  I  have  endeavored  to  occupy  a  portion 
of  the  chair  that  he  customarily  fills;  and  I  have  noticed  the 
interest  and  fidelity  of  those  Trustees  through  all  the  hot  weather. 
I  believe  we  have  not  failed  to  have  a  quorum  at  any  call  of  a 
meeting.  We  have  gone  through  the  entire  docket,  and  have 
endeavored  thoroughly  to  discharge  all  the  duties  imposed  upon 
us  as  members  of  the  various  Committees.  There  are  some  mem¬ 
bers  of  this  Board  who  would  laugh  at  a  check  of  five  thousand 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


33 


dollars  as  recompense  for  their  work  in  behalf  of  the  institution. 
With  their  power,  with  their  position,  with  their  pecumary 
advantage,  they  would  make  that  money  in  less  time  than  they 
have  given  to  the  interests  of  this  Academy.  I  have  not  found 
anything  that  strikes  me  as  selfish,  in  any  aspect  of  the  plan  or 
the  action  of  these  Trustees.  I  believe  that  they  are  thoroughly 
unselfish.  I  think  they  have  proved  it.  They,  therefore,  must 
have  acted  generously  in  all  the  past,  however  much  they  may 
have  been  misunderstood.  They  certainly  have  acted  with  abund¬ 
ant  charity  to  all  with  whom  they  have  sustained  relations  in  this 
place ;  and  only  that  generosity  was  more  due  to  th$  young  than 
to  officials,  were  they  willing  at  last  to  surrender  charity  to  justice. 
They  are  willing  to  give,  also,  as  well  as  to  work.  They  now 
stand  before  this  community  simply  as  the  voluntary  servants,  as 
the  spontaneous  benefactors,  of  the  community.  This  will  be 
sooner  or  later  understood.  We  can  trust  this  Board  to  the  dis¬ 
cernment  of  the  community  when  attention  shall  be  called  to  their 
work.  As  for  the  Academy  itself,  from  this  hour  we  have  no 
anxiety  whatever.  It  is  necessary  that  all  gold  should  be  proved 
when  there  may  be  counterfeits.  There  are  those  who  prefer 
counterfeits  that  lie  on  the  surface  to  gold  that  lies  in  the  veins. 
There  are  those  who  cannot  tell  the  difference  between  the  two 
when  they  are  put  before  them.  There  are  those  who  will  spite 
their  children,  perhaps,  through  a  partisan  attachment  to  an  en¬ 
terprise.  We  must  be  patient  through  all  this.  The  Academy 
stands  in  no  relations  to  the  troubles  of  the  past.  It  stands  here 
upon  a  new  foundation,  committed  only  to  the  work  of  the  future. 
It  intends  to  make  its  way  in  the  estimation  and  in  the  affection 
of  the  community  by  the  presentation  of  specimens  of  its  work 
when  it  has  had  time  to  accomplish  that  work.  We  shall  stand 
at  the  door  of  the  treasury  and  see  that  the  box  is  full  until  the 
work  is  done. 

We  believe  that  there  is  a  better  work  even  than  this  which 
we  have  described  before  us  in  the  future — namely,  the  work  of 
endowing  this  institution,  and  presenting  it  to  the  community 
entirely  independent  in  its  resources,  so  that  it  may  lift  its  aim 
as  high  as’ possible,  and  pursue  its  work  as  self-sacrificingly  as 
possible,  seeking  only  to  bless  the  community  and  the  church 
with  cultured  men  and  women. 


34 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY 


I  have  to-day;  in  traveling,  been  touched  upon  the  shoulder  by 
a  stranger,  asking  if  he  were  sure  that  he  identified  me,  and  ex¬ 
pressing  deep  regret  that  his  town  of  Ithaca  had  lost  the  man 
that  Brooklyn  to-night  rejoices  to  have  gained;  and  from  his 
spontaneous  testimony,  I  have  not  the  slightest  hesitation  in  ac¬ 
cepting  and  endorsing  all  that  our  worthy  President  has  said 
concerning  him  who  now  stands  at  the  head  of  this  institution. 
We  have  the  record  of  the  past,  and  not  an  empty  prophecy  of 
the  future,  for  our  assurance.  We  must  stand  by  him.  I  shall 
put  down  in  the  calendar  of  this  year,  as  sacred,  the  time  that 
belongs  to  this  Board  of  Trustees ;  and  for  the  year  to  come  I 
have  been  cutting  loose  from  other  engagements,  and  putting 
aside  other  work,  that  I  may  always  be  in  my  place  in  this  insti¬ 
tution.  The  best  thoughts  of  my  mind,  the  warmest  impulses  of 
my  heart,  and  some  of  the  best  hours  of  my  week,  I  intend  to  give 
to  this  institution. 


Dr.  Budington. — The  minister  has  always  stood  by  the  teacher. 
And  the  remarks  of  my  distinguished  brother,  I  am  sure,  ali  the.1 
ministers  on  this  platform  will  echo.  The  Principal  of  this  insti¬ 
tution  will  find,  not  less  in  these  other  ministers  than  in  Dr. 
Duryea,  faithful  Sympathizers  and  friends. 

I  am  now  going  to  call  upon  Bev.  A.  S.  Hunt,  who  represents 
the  denomination  which  has  of  late  been  doing  incomparable 
wonders  in  the  cause  of  Christian  education. 

j^EMAI^KS  BY  j^EV.  y^LBEPT  jS.  j^UNT. 

After  a  few  introductory  remarks,  Dr.  Hunt  enlarged  upon 
two  thoughts : 

First — That  it  was  an  occasion  for  gratitude  that  such  em¬ 
phasis  had  been  given  in  Prof.  Sprague’s  address,  and,  indeed, 
in  all  the  addresses  of  the  evening,  to  the  vital  distinction  between 
education  and  information.  He  quoted  Kobert  Hall’s  words : 
“  Education  is  measured  not  merely,  or  mainly,  by  the  amount  of 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


35 


knowledge  it  brings  in,  but  by  the  amount  of  power  it  brings 


out.” 


His  second  thought  was  one  suggested,  as  he  said,  by  Dr.  Bush- 
nell.  In  his  admirable  address  concerning  “  Pulpit  Talent,”  he 
names,  as  one  of  the  gifts  of  ministerial  power,  that  mysterious 
something  which  we  call  a  man’s  atmosphere.  What  is  true  of 
the  preacher  is  equally  true  of  the  teacher. 

Dr.  Arnold,  Dr.  Nott,  Dr.  Olin  and  President  Hopkins  were 
named  as  illustrations,  and  he  concluded  by  saying :  “  I  think  I 
am  expressing  the  conviction  of  this  entire  Board  of  Trustees 
when  I  say  that  a  kind  Providence  has  given  us  a  man  to  preside 
over  this  institution  who  has  not  only  culture  and  experience,  but 
an  atmosphere  which  will  be  potent  for  good.  May  God  bless 
him  and  the  institution  now  committed  to  his  care  !” 

Dr.  Budington. — I  have  called  upon  practical  teachers,  and 
also  upon  practical  preachers,  to  speak.  I  now  call  upon  a 
preacher  and  teacher  in  one — my  honored  friend  and  neighbor — 
Dr.  Moore. 


Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — Alter  having  sat 
at  such  a  board  as  this,  for  two  hours,  spread  so  generously  with 
the  choicest  viands,  I  am  persuaded  you  do  not  wish  for  Mo(o)re. 
I  .wish  to  congratulate  you,  friends  and  myself,  upon  our  good 
fortune  in  having  secured  for  the  Principalship  of  this  Academy 
one  who,  by  years  of  devoted  and  successful  labor  in  the  cause  of 
education,  has  won  for  himself  so  eminent  a  place  among  the 
foremost  educators  of  the  country.  He  comes  to  us  not  with  un¬ 
fledged  notions  to  try  upon  us  and  our  youth  some  new  theories, 
but  with  a  cultivated  brain,  a  large  and  loving  heart  and  earnest 
purpose,  and  a  large  fund  of  experience,  to  employ  tried  methods 
of  systematic  and  thorough  education.  The  one  thought  and  the 
only  one  which  I  wish  to  impress  upon  your  minds  is,  the  import¬ 
ance  of  appreciating  the  responsibility  which  devolves  upon  him 
and  the  immense  difficulties  of  the  task  assigned  him.  This  is 
the  point  at  which  we  shall  be  tried — whether  we  so  far  appreciate 


36 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY. 


this  work  as  to  be  patient  and  yield  that  measure  of  sympathy 
and  co-operation  which  shall  secure  the  happy  results  we  desire. 
Dr.  Arnold,  of  Eugby,  was  accustomed  to  speak  of  his  pupils  as 
“  an  awful  charge,”  and  well  he  might.  Every  true  teacher  feels 
it.  These  co-workers  with  Prof.  Sprague  feel  it.  When  I  was 
asked  to  come  and  take  charge  of  the  Washington  Avenue  Baptist 
Church,  I  said  to  the  Committee,  “  Will  your  people  be  willing  to 
wait  patiently  for  results  by  legitimate  means?  by  honest  Christian 
work  ?”  My  friends,  this  teacher  may  ask  us  a  similar  question — 
whether  we  will  be  sufficiently  patient  to  wait  for  results  by  true 
methods  of  education.  Trust  much  to  him.  He  has  referred  to 
some  who  thought  it  useless  to  study  arithmetic  and  geography. 
I  advise  you  to  leave  all  such  questions  to  him.  My  watch  gets 
out  of  order  sometimes,  and  I  take  it  to  the  watchmaker.  He 
understands  watches ;  I  do  not ;  so  I  allow  him  to  do  with  it  what 
he  thinks  best.  When  I  am  sick  I  send  for  a  physician.  He 
understands  medicine ;  I  do  not ;  I  put  myself  under  his  care  and 
submit  to  his  regimen.  How,  these  teachers  understand  the  mat¬ 
ter  of  education  ;  therefore  leave  much  to  them.  Trust  to  their 
judgment  as  to  what  is  best  for  your  boys  and  girls  to  study. 
One  other  thing.  Be  willing  that  your  children  should  do  hard 
work.  Eeference  has  been  made  to  shams  in  education.  There 
are  plenty  of  shams  in  the  world,  and,  as  a  practical  teacher,  I  tell 
you  that  all  systems  of  “  education  made  easy”  are  shams.  There 
is  no  royal  road  to  learning.  If  you  are  dissatisfied  because  your 
children  do  not  get  over  ground  rapidly,  ask  yourselves  not  how 
many  things  they  have  learned  but  how  much  thought  they  have 
bestowed  on  what  they  have  learned. 

How,  dear  friends,  I  trust  1  may  assure  Prof.  Sprague  that  we 
do  in  some  good  degree,  appreciate  the  responsibility  devolving 
upon  him  and  the  difficulty  of  the  task  assigned  him  ;  that  we 
will  continue  to  cherish  a  lively  interest  in  this  institution  and  in 
its  work  ;  that  we  will  be  ready  with  helpful  sympathy  and  active 
co-operation,  and  do  what  we  can,  with  him,  to  make  this  Adelphi 
Academy  worthy  of  this  fairest  portion  of  our  goodly  city — a 
fountain  of  blessing,  whence  perennial  streams  shall  go  forth  to 
gladden  generations  to  come. 

And  now,  sir,  believing  that  the  friends  of  this  institution  will 
do  more  and  better  than  I  have  spoken,  I  bid  you  God-speed  in 
your  work. 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


37 


Dr.  Budington. — We  have  heard  from  the  others ;  now  let  us 
hear  from  the  heavy  battalions.  Gen.  Slocum,  tell  us  how  edu¬ 
cation  looks  from  the  halls  of  Congress. 


BY 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — I  came  here  for  two  purposes  this 
evening.  One  was,  to  testify  my  friendship  for  this  institution 
and  the  interest  that  I  feel  in  its  success.  The  other  was,  to 
listen  to  the  addresses  that  you  were  informed  were  to  be  delivered. 
And  I  have  been  amply  paid  for  coming. 

The  Doctor  now  requests  me  to  bring  on  the  heavy  battalions. 
That  requires  energy,  I  can  assure  you;  and  I  am  too  good  a 
general  to  get  up  at  half  past  ten  o’clock  at  night  and  attempt  to 
follow  such  gentlemen  as  have  preceded  me.  I  have  too  much 
sense  to  engage  in  any  work  of  that  kind. 

In  this  day  and  age  of  the  world,  the  sight  of  thirty  or  forty 
gentlemen  assembling  together  to  promote  an  interest  where  they 
can  reap  no  profit,  no  benefit  but  that  which  they  will  get  in  com¬ 
mon  with  all  their  neighbors,  is  a  sight  so  rare  that  it  seems  to 
me  it  should  attract  public  attention  and  command  public  sym¬ 
pathy.  That  is  the  sight  which  this  community  beholds  here. 
We  all  remember  that  a  little  over  a  year  ago,  forty  or  fifty 
gentlemen  assembled  in  this  room  to  discuss  the  propriety  of  pur¬ 
chasing  this  property.  We  all  remember  how  disinterested  every 
one  was,  and  how  at  that,  and  all  subsequent  meetings,  no  feeling 
and  no  thought  but  that  of  an  ^earnest  desire  to  benefit  this  com¬ 
munity,  and  to  benefit  this  school,  was  ever  entertained.  When 
the  discussion  came  up  as  to  whether  this  should  be  taken  as  pri¬ 
vate  property,  or  endowed  and  given  to  the  public,  there  was  not 
a  single  dissenting  voice  among  the  whole  number.  All  favored 
endowment.  And  from  that  day  to  this  these  gentlemen,  having 
already  given  money,  have  since  given  their  time — some  of  them 
a  large  portion  of  it — and,  as  I  said  before,  with  no  hope  of 
reward.  And  I  do  think,  should  this  effort  fail,  aside  from  the 
loss  the  community  would  experience  in  losing  the  school,  it  would 
suffer  another  great  and  even  more  severe  loss.  The  failure  of 


38 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY 


any  attempt  of  this  kind  is  disheartening.  When  men  labor  from 
such  pure  motives,  with  no  desire  but  that  of  benefiting  the  pub¬ 
lic,  they  ought  to  succeed;  and  I  believe  that  in  this  case  they 
will.  I  have  full  faith.  We  are  passing  through  a  crisis,  but  I 
believe  that  when  this  community  and  the  citizens  of  Brooklyn 
come  to  understand  fully  the  motives  that  have  prompted  the 
gentlemen  who  have  been  engaged  in  this  enterprise,  and  the 
fairness  with  which  they  have  treated  everybody,  they  will  take 
hold  and  sustain  them. 

Looking  upon  this  effort  merely  in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view,  I 
believe  the  citizens  of  Brooklyn  could  well  afford,  if  from  no  other 
consideration,  to  clear  this  institution  from  debt.  As  Dr.  Buding- 
ton  has  said,  the  Prussians  have  achieved  their  successes  in  a 
great  measure  by  reason  of  the  intelligence  of  the  common 
soldier. 

I  remember,  about  two  years  ago,  listening  to  an  address  by 
Dr.  Stokes’  in  the  Academy  of  Music — one  of  the  most  eloquent 
addresses  that  I  ever  listened  to — in  which  he  spoke  of  the  Prus¬ 
sian  common  school  system  as  being  ahead  of  any  other  on  earth. 
When  the  first  tidings  came  to  us  of  the  successes  of  the  Prussian 
armies,  this  recurred  to  my  mind.  I  believe  that  Prussia  owes 
more  to  her  common  schools  than  to  her  military  academies. 

The  statement  made  by  the  Doctor  relative  to  the  Prussian 
soldiers  reminds  me  of  what  I  have  witnessed  a  hundred  times  in 
our  own  army.  Sherman’s  army  was,  I  believe,  as  intelligent  a 
body  of  men  as  ever  moved  on  a  battle  field,  and  I  had  more 
opportunity  than  I  ever  had  with  any  other  troops  of  observing 
their  habits.  Almost  every  day,  on  the  march  to  the  sea,  when 
they  stopped  to  take  their  lunch  at  noon,  I  rode  through  the 
whole  line.  The  men  would  be  seated  along  the  road,  extending 
often  some  ten  or  fifteen  miles,  and  I  passed  through  between 
them.  I  have  seen  a  hundred  men  at  a  time  studying  their  little 
maps.  When  they  started  they  had  the  good  sense  to  supply 
themselves  with  pocket  maps,  which  were  published  and  sold 
very  cheaply  in  New  York.  And,  as  they  sat  along  the  road-side 
studying  these  maps,  I  have  heard  private  soldiers  discuss  as  in¬ 
telligently  as  a  body  of  officers  could  do  what  would  probably  be 
the  movements  of  the  morrow.  And  the  strength  of  our  army, 
like  that  of  the  Prussian  army,  lay  in  their  intelligence. 


INAUGURAL  EXERCISES. 


39 


Build  up  common  schools,  then,  and  you  have  the  best  standing 
army  that  you  can  have.  If  you  want  to  reduce  your  taxes, 
bring  up  a  generation  of  men  who  can  understand  a  tax  budget. 

I  thank  the  doctor  for  calling  on  me,  for  I  want  to  be  recognized 
as  a  friend  of  the  Adelphi  Academy. 

Remarks  by  JDr.  ptuTCHisoN. 

Dr.  Hutchison,  being  called  upon,  said: 

Public  speaking,  as  you  are  aware,  Mr.  President,  is  very  far 
from  my  appropriate  sphere ;  but  I  am  glad,  in  responding  to 
your  call,  to  have  the  opportunity  of  expressing  to  this  community 
the  fullest  confidence  in  the  present  management  of  the  Adelphi 
Academy.  The  success  of  the  institution  is  beyond  a  peradven- 
ture  if  it  continues  to  pursue,  quietly  and  assiduously,  its 
substantial  course  of  instruction,  looking  neither  to  the  right  nor 
to  the  left,  but  seeking  the  favor  of  the  public  by  the  only  avenue 
which  is  permanently  available  in  this  common  sense  country — 
that  of  assiduous  attention  to  the  honorable  interests  of  its  pupils. 


In  introducing  the  next  speaker,  Judge  Pratt,  the  President 
said,  “How  the  Judges  end  the  strife.” 

y4:DDRESS  BY  jJuDGE  pRATT. 

Capt.  Marryatt,  in  one  of  his  novels,  describes  a  triangular 
duel,  in  which  the  combatants  were  placed  each  at  the  angle  of  a 
triangle :  A  fired  at  B,  B  at  0,  and  C  at  A,  and  thus  it  proceeded 
until  all  parties  were  satisfied.  How,  I  have  always  noticed  that 
when  teachers  and  ministers — experts  in  speech-making — catch  a 
lawyer  out  of  court,  with  no  client  or  fee,  -and  hence  unarmed, 
there  is  always  a  “triangular  duel,”  with  this  difference,  however, 
from  the  one  described  by  Marryatt  :  The  lawyer  is  placed  at 
the  apex  of  the  triangle,  and  the  other  two,  from  their  respective 
corners,  blaze  away  at  him. 

I  was  assured  by  my  friend  upon  my  right  that  if  I  would 
come  with  him  upon  this  stand,  under  no  circumstances  should  I 


40 


ADELPHI  ACADEMY 


be  called  out.  Now,  to  “  end  all  strife,”  I  adjudge  him  guilty  of 
a  “ contempt ”  towards  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  a  “fraud  upon 
the  Court.” 

But,  notwithstanding  the  disadvantages  under  which  I  am 
placed,  and  the  reprehensible  conduct  of  my  friend,  the  General, 
who  has  manoeuvred  me  into  this  position,  I  am  proud  to  have  an 
opportunity  of  paying  a  tribute  of  respect  and  admiration  to  the 
character  and  talents  of  the  gentleman  whose  services  you  have 
secured  for  this  institution. 

I  recollect  well,  some  sixteen  or  eighteen  years  ago,  when  he 
came  to  the  city  ctf  Worcester.  Although  quite  young  in  years, 
a  reputation  for  ripe  scholarship,  fine  talents  and  strict  integrity 
preceded  him.  He  studied  law  with  remarkable  industry  and 
commenced  practice  with  marked  success. 

I  cannot  concede  that  it  was  for  the  same  reason  assigned 
by  Dr.  Cochrane  why  another  young  man  could  not  be  a  lawyer 
that  Professor  Sprague  left  the  legal  profession,  and  it  certainly 
was  not  a  want  of  success,  for  no  man  at  that  day  had  a  more 
brilliant  future  before  him  as  a  lawyer.  It  must  be  attributed 
not  to  the  fact  that  he  loved  the  law  less  but  that  he  loved  teaching 
more. 

He  did  leave  the  law  and  took  charge  of  the  Public  Academy 
at  Worcester.  The  loss  sustained  by  the  bar  has  been  gain  to 
the  cause  of  education,  and  to  hundreds,  nay,  thousands  of  youth, 
who  have  been  instructed  by  him.  The  success  he  has  achieved 
as  a  teacher  is  well  known  to  the  Trustees  who  have  employed 
him  here.  All  I  have  to  say  to  the  patrons  is,  you  have  secured 
a  prize.  From  this  inauguration  you  may  date  assured  success. 
Take  my  word  for  it,  under  his  administration  this  Academy  will 
be  all  its  most  ardent  friends  can  wish. 


NDOWMENT  AND 


NCORPORATION, 


In  the  summer  of  1869,  the  Adelphi  Academy,  which  had  hitherto 
existed  as  a  private  school,  was  purchased  by  the  donations  of  the  follow¬ 
ing  named  citizens  of  Brooklyn :  WilliamS.  Woodward,  Buckley  T. 
Benton,  Alfred  S.  Barnes,  Alfred  C.  Barnes,  William  H.  Wal¬ 
lace,  Charles  H.  Noyes,  Charles  Evans,  Gen.  Henry  W.  Slocum, 
Samuel  M.  Mills,  Thomas  Vernon,  Joseph  C.  Hutchison,  M  D., 
Charles  E.  Hill,  Enos  N.  Taft,  Rev.  William  Ives  Budington, 
John  Davol,  Charles  Pratt,  Samuel  Crowell,  Peter  M.  Dingee, 
Joseph  B.  Elliott,  M.  D.,  Samuel  Wright,  T.  J.  Ellinwood. 

This  was  not  for  the  purpose  of  continuing  it  as  private  property,  but 
with  a  view  to  its  incorporation  and  the  gift  thereof  to  the  community  as 
a  public  institution  forever. 

In  August,  1869,  the  donors  petitioned  the  Regents  of  the  University 
for  such  incorporation,  and  nominated  a  Board  of  twenty-four  Trustees 
pursuant  to  the  ordinances  of  the  Regents  and  the  Statue  of  the  State. 

This  petition  was  granted,  the  charter  was  issued  by  the  Regents,  and 
the  institution  became  duly  incorporated  with  the  Board  of  Trustees  thus 
nominated  by  the  donors. 

All  the  property  pertaining  to  the  Academy  was  thereupon  duly  con¬ 
veyed  to  and  became  vested  in  the  corporation  so  created,  and  henceforth 
no  private  interest  whatever  remained,  but  the  same,  with  all  its  revenues 
and  increase,  was  forever  donated,  and  by  the  sanction  and  binding  force 
of  law,  dedicated  to  the  public . 

The  Trustees. 

The  Trustees  so  nominated  and  appointed,  and  their  successors,  are 
bound  by  law  to  administer  the  trust  reposed  in  them,  and  apply  all  the 
property  of  the  Academy,  and  its  revenues,  in  such  manner,  under  the 
laws  of  the  State,  as  they  shall  conscientiously  deem  most  conducive  to 
the  objects  of  the  trust. 

They  serve  without  reward,  and  have  no  other  personal  interest  in  the 
institution  than  belongs  to  any  other  citizen  But  as  the  duty  of  dis¬ 
charging  a  trust  is  reposed  in  them  by  law,  so  long  as  they  serve  as 
Trustees,  they  must  perform  that  duty  by  the  free  exercise  of  their  own 

best  judgment. 


42 


ENDOWMENT  AND  INCORPORATION. 


This  obligation  they  freely  acknowledge,  and  will  exert  their  best 
endeavors  to  perform. 

Future  Donations. 

It  being  known  that  this  institution  is  now  established  upon  the  new 
foundation  of  a  pure  public  trust,  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that 
further  and  liberal  donations  will,  from  time  to  time,  be  bestowed  upon 
the  Academy  by  public-spirited  citizens,  until  not  only  the  incumbrances 
now  upon  its  property  shall  be  wholly  removed,  but  its  means  of  useful¬ 
ness  be  largely  increased. 

The  public  are  asked  to  remember  that  this  institution  and  all  its  property 
are  exclusively  for  them  and  for  their  children ;  that  no  one  person  has  in 
law  any  greater  interest  in  it  than  another,  and  all  may  take  a  just  pride 
in  promoting  its  growth  and  prosperity. 

Buildings. 

The  building  appropriated  to  the  Preparatory  Department,  in  Adelphi 
Street,  contains  six  excellent  school  rooms  and  one  large  and  commodious 
calisthenic  hall.  It  is  provided  with  Robinson  ventilators  and  is  well, 
furnished  for  school  purposes. 

The  new  Adelphi  building  on  Lafayette  avenue  is,  in  many  respects, 
a  model  edifice.  It  is  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  feet  in  length  by  fifty- 
three  in  breadth.  It  is  handsomely  and  solidly  built  of  brick,  with  all  the 
modern  improvements.  The  rooms  are  light  and  pleasant,  and  adequately 
provided  with  separate  cloak  and  toilet  rooms  and  water  closets  adjoining. 
The  furniture  is  convenient  and  elegant.  The  Calistheneum  is  a  spacious 
and  beautiful  hall,  fifty  feet  by  sixty-seven,  with  twenty -four  feet  ceiling^ 
affording  exercise  for  seventy  pupils  at  once.  The  adjoining  play -grounds 
are  ample. 

Nature  of  the  Institution. 

The  Adelphi  Academy  is  not  a  private  speculation,  but  a  public  bene¬ 
faction.  It  belongs  to  no  one  man  or  set  of  men,  but  to  the  whole  com¬ 
munity.  Should  the  receipts  be  greater  than  the  expenditures,  the 
community  alone  will  be  the  gainers.  The  controlling  purpose  of  the 
gentlemen  who  made  this  gift  to  the  public  was  to  advance  the  cause  of 
education  and  the  common  welfare  by  bringing  hundreds  of  our  most 
promising  children  and  youth  under  influences  that  should  foster  in  them 
a  nobler  manhood  and  womanhood ;  to  lay  broad  and  deep  the  foundations 
of  their  usefulness  and  happiness ;  and  so,  to  plant  in  the  heart  of  this 
great  city  an  institution  that  should  'go  on  e&]oanflinj^  arid  blessing  long 
after  its  founders  should  have  passed  away. 


j|M!VERS'Tv  OF  ILLINOIS 


